In this unit, students contextualise the idea of energy transformations. The ‘Big Idea’ is Scientific knowledge and understandings inform human survival. Students develop and draw upon a range of understandings based on physical and earth sciences to explore this concept.
Students are presented with the hypothetical situation that they are working on the Australian Antarctic base during winter. There is no sunlight for another 6 months; they have limited resources at their disposal. They have just found that due to a storm that destroyed their food supplies they will starve before the end of the winter. Students investigate various energy transformations to work out how to power UV lights so that they can grow food to ensure their team does not starve before the end of the winter!
This unit uses a contemporary approach to learning that utilises current technology (including Virtual Reality) along with a student centred inquiry approach to it’s structure. Backed by a breath of research in middle years education, this structure aims to empower students to co-direct and negotiate aspects of their experience at Earth Ed and supports classroom teachers to develop assessment or further learning tasks upon their return to school.