Science in daily life: Year 1 Science topic guide

What students learn in AC9S1H01

This unit helps students build a clear, usable understanding of Science in daily life. The goal is not to memorise one answer pattern. Students should be able to explain the idea, recognise it in a new example and apply it in a short practice or worksheet task.

• Start with the main idea: describe how people use science in their daily lives, including using patterns to make scientific predictions.
• Use concrete examples, pictures, oral explanation and short written responses before moving to independent practice.
• learning from farmers, bush care volunteers, gardeners or nursery owners about how they observe the needs of plants, and how they have designed or managed habitats to meet those needs identifying ways that science knowledge is used in the care of the local environment and suggesting ways local gardens or parks could better meet the needs of native animals
• Finish with mixed questions so students must choose the correct strategy rather than copy the last example.

Curriculum coverage and elaborations

The content description and elaborations below show the curriculum ideas taught in this unit. Items marked as teaching context support lesson planning but may not appear in the initial eight-question activity.

• Content description: describe how people use science in their daily lives, including using patterns to make scientific predictions
• E1: learning from farmers, bush care volunteers, gardeners or nursery owners about how they observe the needs of plants, and how they have designed or managed habitats to meet those needs
• E2: identifying ways that science knowledge is used in the care of the local environment and suggesting ways local gardens or parks could better meet the needs of native animals
• E3: investigating how First Nations Australians use science to meet their needs, such as food and water supply and shelter (teaching context)
• E4: recognising how First Nations Australians use changes in the landscape and the sky to answer questions about when to gather certain resources (teaching context)
• E5: learning from local ecologists or wildlife carers about native animals’ needs and how they observe animal behaviour to design supports for them to meet those needs, such as building frog and insect hotels and nesting boxes or recycling materials to provide habitat
• E6: sharing examples of how they have used science knowledge at home, such as by listening to or viewing weather forecasts or observing weather patterns when planning family events or outings, or wearing appropriate clothing for the season
• E7: identifying how we use pushes and pulls when preparing meals, and the tools that help us push or pull objects
• E8: exploring how engineers use knowledge of forces to create new playground equipment or toys

How to use this unit

Read the topic guide, use the teacher slide for instruction, then complete the Worksheet, Practice and Test. These three activities use the same eight-question unit bank.

Common mistakes to watch for

• Describing what is seen without connecting it to a question, pattern or prediction.
• Using everyday words only and missing simple scientific vocabulary.
• Changing more than one thing in an investigation, which makes the comparison unfair.

International curriculum mapping

This table gives closest-topic mapping for search and planning. The Australian Curriculum code is exact; overseas entries are broad equivalents because each jurisdiction structures outcomes differently.

Related Year 1 Science topics

• AC9S1U01: Needs of plants and animals
• AC9S1U02: Daily and seasonal changes
• AC9S1U03: Pushes and pulls
• AC9S1I01: Questions, patterns and predictions
• AC9S1I02: Safe investigation procedures
• AC9S1I03: Making and recording observations
• AC9S1I04: Sorting data and representing patterns
• AC9S1I05: Comparing observations and predictions

Official curriculum references

• Australian Curriculum Version 9.0
• Victorian Curriculum F-10
• NSW Curriculum
• Common Core State Standards
• Next Generation Science Standards
• England National Curriculum
• New Zealand Curriculum
• NCERT textbooks