What’s Happening in Science in Term 4 2025
Foundation:
During term 4, the students in the Foundation area will focus on daily changes in our environment, including the weather, and how they affect our daily life. The students will be able to describe the characteristics of the weather and explore daily patterns. This will include examining precipitation, temperature, wind and clouds, and their similarities and differences over different time scales. We will use simple, informal measurement scales using language from everyday experiences, such as hot, warm, cool, cold, none, gentle and strong, to describe the weather.
Grade 1/2:
During term 4, the students in the grade 1 and 2 area will focus on Earth’s resources, including water, and how they are used in a variety of ways. The students will observe and describe responsible use of water and identify patterns of similarity and difference in how water is used at school, home and in the community. We will observe how rain falls periodically but is relatively stable over a yearly cycle. The students will explore how it collects in creeks, rivers, lakes, dams and as ground water, and that people transfer it from the source to a point of use. They will also model how water moves across the landscape and how it can be contained.
Grade 3/4:
During term 4, the students in grade 3 and 4 will focus on how Earth changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity. The students will observe and describe the patterns in the landscape that result from erosion over a period of time. We will explore how landscapes, which seem stable in our timescale, change over geological time. The students will compare the features of rocks and soils and how these also change over time.
Grade 5/6:
During term 4, the students in grade 5 and 6 will explore how sudden geological changes or extreme weather conditions can affect the Earth’s surface. There will be a large focus on earthquakes and tectonic plate movement. We will investigate the relationship between the form of the Earth’s crust and how the movement of tectonic plates causes earthquakes which in turn, affect the surface of the Earth. The students will also explore that earthquakes are not predictable, but some areas are more likely to experience these natural events.