Big Ideas - Year 7

Mandatory: Yes

Duration: Full year

Description

Big Ideas is an integrated subject incorporating the learning areas of Mathematics and Science. Students are supported to explore real life problems and attempt to solve them through the application of the scientific method.

In Mathematics students work to develop fluency and understanding and to gain skills in problem solving and reasoning through engagement with the following areas.

• Number and Algebra: fractions, decimals, percentages, rational numbers, exponent notation, financial mathematics, patterns and algebra, algebraic expressions, linear equations.
• Measurement and Space: measurement and geometry of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes, coordinate system, transformation of shapes.
• Statistics and Probability: data collection, presentation and analysis, assigning probability, chance simulations.

Students are supported to consolidate understanding and application of multiplicative thinking and proportional reasoning through the “color folder program”, a small group intervention program designed to extend higher order thinking. Individual learning goals based on student’s needs, support them to focus on identified areas for growth and extension and are reviewed regularly.

In Science students explore and examine the following areas in order to develop scientific understanding and gain inquiry skills and an appreciation of science as a human endeavor.

• Biological Science: Classification, food webs and food chains.
• Earth and Space Science: Cyclic changes of Sun, Earth and Moon.
• Physical Science: Balanced and unbalanced forces.
• Chemical Science: Particle theory, separation techniques.

Students are encouraged to work collaboratively to solve open ended problems and use the engineering design process to learn from failures and improve their solutions before reporting on them.