What students learn in AC9S9I01
This unit helps students build a clear, usable understanding of Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships.... 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: develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships and develop explanatory models.
- Use concrete examples, pictures, oral explanation and short written responses before moving to independent practice.
- discussing what is needed for a question to be investigable or a prediction to be reasoned generating investigable questions about the relationships between human body systems and everyday events, such as: ‘How does the intensity of exercise affect heart rate and breathing rate?’
- 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: develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships and develop explanatory models
- E1: discussing what is needed for a question to be investigable or a prediction to be reasoned
- E2: generating investigable questions about the relationships between human body systems and everyday events, such as: ‘How does the intensity of exercise affect heart rate and breathing rate?’
- E3: developing investigable questions to explore an explanatory model, such as: ‘How is sound wave transfer affected by the density of the medium through which it travels? What causes our body temperature to rise when we are ill?’
- E4: discussing why a scientific hypothesis has to be able to be supported or refuted through evidence
- E5: proposing a hypothesis to test an identified relationship, such as: ‘If objects of different temperatures are placed in contact, heat energy will transfer from an object of higher temperature to an object of lower temperature until both objects reach the same temperature’
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.
Teacher resource
AC9S9I01 teacher slide
Use this one-page PDF to introduce the key idea, vocabulary and teaching sequence before students begin the activities.
Open teacher slide (PDF)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.
| Region | Curriculum | Closest mapping |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Australian Curriculum v9.0 | AC9S9I01 — develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships and develop explanatory models |
| Victoria | Victorian Curriculum F-10 | Year 9 Science: closest match in Questioning and predicting. Use this page as a VIC-aligned practice and worksheet reference. |
| NSW | NSW Curriculum | Stage 5 Science: closest content focus for Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships... and related outcomes. |
| United States | Common Core / NGSS | Grade 9 NGSS science closest topic match for Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships.... |
| England / UK | National Curriculum | Key Stage 3 / Year 9: closest programme-of-study match for Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships.... |
| Canada | Provincial and territory curricula | Grade 9 closest topic match. Canada varies by province, so use this as a broad Ontario/BC-style learning outcome reference. |
| New Zealand | New Zealand Curriculum | Level 5 Science: closest achievement-objective topic for Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships.... |
| India | NCERT / CBSE | Class 9 closest NCERT/CBSE topic match for Develop investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses to test relationships.... |