Cross-curriculum priorities
Cross-curriculum Priorities support the Western Australian Curriculum to be a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts. Cross-curriculum Priorities are incorporated through learning area content; they are not separate learning areas or subjects. They provide opportunities to enrich the content of the learning areas, where most appropriate and authentic, allowing students to engage with and better understand the world.
Opportunities to apply Cross-curriculum Priorities to learning area content vary. The Cross-curriculum Priorities of most relevance and meaning to the Science curriculum are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and Sustainability.
In the Science curriculum, students learn that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have traditions that use longstanding scientific knowledge. They have developed knowledge about the world by making observations, using all the senses, engaging in prediction, hypothesising and testing (trial and error), and making generalisations within specific contexts, such as the use of food, natural materials, navigation and sustainability of the environment.
Through Science, students become aware that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have worked scientifically for millennia and continue to provide significant contributions to developments in science. Through the exploration of the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to areas such as medicine, mining, ecology, fire management, habitat restoration and water management, students investigate the ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge and that of other cultures can be used in combination to advance scientific understanding and to care for Country/Place.
In the Science curriculum, the Sustainability priority provides contexts for investigating and understanding biological, Earth and space, physical and chemical systems. Students explore a variety of systems that operate at different time and spatial scales. By investigating the relationship between systems and their components and how systems respond to change, students develop an appreciation for the interconnectedness of Earth’s geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
Students explore contexts, such as ecosystem dynamics, weathering and erosion, energy sources and global climate change, with a focus on understanding how science is used to predict possible effects of human and other activity on the Earth system, and to develop management plans or alternative technologies that mitigate these effects. Students appreciate that science provides the basis for decision-making in many areas of society and that these decisions can impact the sustainability of environmental, social and economic systems.
The ACARA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elaborations are mapped to the Australian Curriculum version 8.4. Teachers will need to consider the use of the elaborations in supporting the teaching of the revised Western Australian: Science Curriculum.