SACSA Framework

Developing Key Ideas

State of the Environment reporting provides up to date information on the natural and built environment in South Australia. This information provides an ideal resource for learning at school. Below are examples of how Key Ideas and Outcomes can be developed in each Learning Area (in the Middle Years) by accessing State of the Environment reports.

There are, of course, many other ways to develop Key Ideas in each Learning area, including involvement in environmental action.

Examples

Mathematics

Strand: Exploring, analysing and modelling data

Key Idea: Students engage with data by formulating and answering questions, and collecting, organising and representing data in order to investigate and understand the world around them. [In] [T] [C] [KC2] [KC6]

Outcome: Poses questions, appropriately designs a survey, collects data and classifies sequence, collapses, tabulates and represents the data with and without ICTs. [In] [T] [C] [[KC1] [KC2] [KC7]

Resources: Use the energy fact sheet to explore, analyse and model energy use in different sectors of the community. Access online resources (try the Theme Human Settlements first), to broaden the study and investigate school based programs in the community resources section.

Strand: Exploring, analysing and modelling data

Key Idea: Students use statistical methods to reduce, analyse and interpret data, while critically evaluating the cultural and social inclusivity of the samples used. [In] [T] [KC1]

Outcome: Reads and describes information in given tables, diagrams, line and bar graphs. Makes predictions based on the information, understanding the limitations of data interpretation and the possible social consequences of these limitations. [In] [T] [KC2] [KC6]

Resources: Environment reporting fact sheets contain tables, diagrams, line and bar graphs. Use the data to make predictions about the environment in South Australia in the context of social, economic and cultural factors.

Strand: Measurement

Key Idea: Students understand attributes, units and systems of measurement. They research and report on how measurement is used in the home, community and paid workforce, and recognise transferability between these and other contexts. [In] [T] [C] [KC1] [KC2] [KC6]

Outcome: Selects appropriate measurement units and scale to conduct collaborative research into issues associated with the social or physical world. [In] [T] [C] [KC1] [KC4]

Resources: School groups can participate in environmental monitoring programs managed by environmental organisations across the State. You can find a list of these organisations in the community resources section. The results of environmental monitoring can be used to develop the Strand measurement.

Science

Strand: Life systems

Key Idea: Students develop a shared understanding of the characteristics and behaviour of living things and how they are interrelated and interdependent. They appreciate and report on the place of humans in the earth's ecology, and develop their understanding of, explore future possibilities for, and act to contribute to, sustainable environments. [F] [In] [KC1] [KC2] [KC3]

Outcome: Investigates and explains the functioning of living systems from the microscopic to the macroscopic. [F] [In] [KC1] [KC2]

Resources: Use the threatened species fact sheet to explore the characteristics and behaviour of living things and how they are interrelated and interdependent. Access online resources (try the theme Biodiversity first), to broaden the study and investigate school based programs in the community resources section.

Strand: Life systems

Key Idea: Students examine the ways organisms reproduce, grow and change over generations. They engage with, and appreciate different positions on, ethical issues such as those associated with ecological sustainability and gene technologies. [F] [In] [T] [C] [KC1]

Outcome: Explores how living things have changed over geological time and debates the value of species diversity and the ethics of human intervention. [F] [T] [C] [KC2] [KC6]

Resources: Use the threatened species, native vegetation and introduced species fact sheets to explore issues of species diversity in South Australia. The impact of human intervention on biodiversity is clear in the fact sheets and can form the basis of an examination of the ethics of human intervention.

Strand: Energy systems

Key Idea: Students collect data about, and critique, their own patterns of energy use in terms of its environmental impact. [F] [Id] [C] [[KC1] [KC5]

Outcome: Investigates ways of obtaining, transferring and using energy (including from sustainable energy sources and from fossil fuels) for particular purposes. [F] [C] [KC6]

Resources: Using the energy fact sheet and online resources: Energy, students can explore their own patterns of energy usage and research consequent environmental impacts.

Strand: Matter

Key Idea: Students communicate understandings about the properties and personal uses of materials. They research future availability of earth materials for human use, and explore possible sustainable alternatives to current patterns of use. [F] [In] [T] [C] [KC1] [KC2] [KC6]

Outcome: Compares properties of materials before and after physical or chemical change by planning, conducting, evaluating and communicating an investigation. [In] [T] [C] [KC1] [KC2] [KC3]

Resources: Using the waste and population and urban form fact sheets and online resources, students can explore patterns of materials use and waste and research environmental impacts.

English

Strand: Texts and contexts

Key Idea: Students respond to increasingly complex ideas and information and examine diversity of opinion when listening to a range of texts. They critically and creatively produce a range of spoken texts about topics and issues for a wide range of audiences. [T] [C] [KC2] [KC6]

Outcome: Produces a range of spoken texts about topics, events and issues of personal, community and world interest and adjusts speaking for a wide range of contexts and audiences. [In] [T] [C] [KC2]

Resources: Use the population and urban form fact sheet to explore complex ideas and information and examine diversity of opinion. Access online resources (try the theme Human Settlements first), to broaden the study and investigate increasingly complex ideas.

Strand: Texts and contexts

Key Idea: Students choose and compose a range of written texts which explore different perspectives about local and some global issues. They apply an understanding of context, purpose and audience to their own writing. [In] [T] [C] [KC2] [KC3]

Outcome: Composes a range of texts that include detailed information and explore different perspectives about a range of issues and adjusts texts for particular audiences, purposes and contexts. [Id] [C] [KC2]

Resources: Use the fact sheets to explore local and global environmental issues associated with human impacts on the environment and sustainability. Access online resources, to broaden the study and explore different perspectives on these issues.

Strand: Language

Key Idea: Students listen to and interact with a wider range of audiences/users for different purposes and contexts, and learn about and integrate aspects of spoken language. They produce a variety of spoken texts, demonstrating control of language, as they communicate with school and extended community audiences. [In] [T] [C] [KC2]

Outcome: Evaluates specific aspects of spoken language when listening and responding to texts in a wide range of contexts. [T] [C] [KC1]

Resources: Taking environmental action provides students with a context for language development through communicating at school, home and in the extended community. Use the action links, community and online resources to explore how students can become involved in environmental action programs.

Design and Technology

Strand: Designing

Key Idea: Students understand and value the combining of different design skills in order to create personal strategies to become better designers of culturally, environmentally and socially defensible products, processes and systems. [F] [In] [KC6]

Outcome: Integrates design skills to create personal strategies for designing culturally and socially defensible products, processes and systems. [F] [In] [KC6]

Resources: Use the energy and waste fact sheets to explore environmentally and socially defensible products, processes and systems. Access online resources (try the theme Human Settlements first), to broaden the study and investigate better systems of waste management.

Strand: Designing

Key Idea: Students apply their knowledge of the characteristics of materials and equipment when creating solutions and designing to meet criteria related to function, aesthetics, sustainability and production. [F] [In] [KC3] [KC6]

Outcome: Evaluates materials and equipment in order to meet principles of function, aesthetics and sustainability. [F] [In] [KC1]

Resources: Use the energy and waste fact sheets to explore, study and design products to address environmental issues of sustainability at school.

Strand: Critiquing

Key Idea: Students analyse and explain the design decisions and thinking implicit in products, processes and systems made by themselves and others. They develop an initial understanding of the competitive nature of the designed and made world. [In] [T] [KC1] [KC2]

Outcome: Explains the decisions and choices made in designed and manufactured products, processes and systems and identifies alternative possibilities. [In] [T] [KC2] [KC6]

Resources: Use the energy fact sheet to explore environmentally and socially defensible products, processes and systems. Access online resources (try the theme human settlements first), to broaden the study and investigate better ways of designing products and the place that sustainable products will play in the future competitive market places.

Arts

Strand: Arts in context

Key Idea: Students investigate the arts practices of a number of cultures across time to develop an understanding and appreciation of the cultural and global connections which are emerging as a result of social and technological change. [F] [In] [KC1]

Outcome: Uses understanding of changing social and cultural beliefs, values and attitudes on the form, style and purpose of arts works made by artists/performers in different cultural settings, to inform research and practical tasks. [In] [T] [KC1] [KC6]

Resources: Using the heritage fact sheet to explore the importance of Aboriginal heritage to Australia. Access online resources (try the theme heritage first), to broaden the study.

Strand: Arts practice

Key Idea: Students draw from thought, imagination, data and research, and the examination of social and cultural issues, to demonstrate personal aesthetic preference, and provide imaginative solutions and artistic responses to ideas and issues. [Id] [T] [KC1] [KC2]

Outcome: Explores arts practice and knowledge of style, form and genre, to create/re-create arts works within each arts form that present imaginative solutions and responses to ideas and issues. [Id] [T] [KC1] [KC6]

Resources: Using any of the fact sheets, explore important environmental ideas and issues and create art works that present imaginative solutions and responses to these ideas and issues.

Society and Environment

Strand: Time, continuity and change

Key Idea: Students investigate and analyse events, ideas, issues and lives of people in their local community, nation and the world, identifying patterns, changes, continuities and possible futures. [F] [Id] [C] [KC1] [KC5] [KC6]

Outcome: Suggests and justifies reasons why groups of people in societies, countries or civilisations have undergone changes in wealth and/or their ability to sustain natural resources. [F] [T] [C] [KC2]

Resources: Using any fact sheets to explore environmental, conservation or resource issues, analyse how South Australia has undergone changes in wealth and/or our ability to sustain natural resources. Compare our management of natural resources nationally and globally.

Strand: Place, space and environment

Key Idea: Students access, investigate, interpret and represent information from field-work, electronic systems and other research, in order to explain local and global interactions and relationships between people and environments. [In] [T] [C] [KC1] [KC2]

Outcome: Hypothesises, then collects, records, organises and evaluates data from field-work, print and electronic sources, in order to analyse local and global, environmental or socio-economic issues. [In] [T] [C] [KC2] [KC5] [KC6] [KC7]

Resources: Use any of the fact sheets to explore environmental, conservation or resource issues. Access community based resources to locate and contact community projects that address environmental issues and provide opportunities for fieldwork. Use online resources and the research ideas to further explain local and global interactions and relationships between people and environments

Strand: Place, space and environment

Key Idea: Students discuss environmental, conservation or resource issues, and individually and/or in teams collaboratively develop strategies to bring about positive change in the local community. [F] [In] [T] [KC2] [KC4] [KC6]

Outcome: Identifies and describes ways that places and natural environments are valued or threatened, and discusses strategies related to ecological sustainability. [F] [In] [T] [KC2] [KC6]

Resources: Use any of the fact sheets to explore environmental, conservation or resource issues. Access community based resources to locate and contact community projects that address environmental issues and provide opportunities to monitor the environment. You could also go to the action level 2 section that describes how students can develop their own environmental action project at school.

Strand: Social systems

Key Idea: Students work cooperatively to collect, analyse and describe information about particular issues which have social, economic and environmental dimensions. They identify Key Ideas, justify positions, predict outcomes and suggest enterprising solutions. [In] [T] [C] [KC1] [KC4] [KC6]

Outcome: Identifies factors that should be analysed by consumers, producers and governments regarding their decisions about goods and services, including people's work. [In] [T] [C] [KC1]

Resources: Use any of the fact sheets to explore issues which have social, economic and environmental dimensions. Access community based resources to locate and contact community projects that address environmental issues and provide opportunities to monitor the environment and collect information.

SACSA Framework information (Key Ideas and Outcomes)
Department of Education,Training and Employment, 2001, South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA), Adelaide: DETE

For more information on Learing Areas, Strands, Key Ideas and Outcomes go to the SACSA website.