Integrated Studies

Year Level Description

Integrated curriculum and inquiry develop the Year 3 student's skills across a number of subject areas – Geography, Health Education, History and Science – and are closely linked to the Year 3 Learning Journey.

By the end of the year the students are expected to:

• question and investigate purposefully;
• select appropriate resources and locate relevant information;
• compare, contrast and evaluate information on various topics;
• prepare and carry out presentations that demonstrate knowledge and skills related to the topics;
• use technology to assist in the retrieval, organisation and presentation of information.

Geography

The primary focus for Year 3 is to understand the representation of Australia as states and territories, and Australia’s major natural and man-made features.

They identify interconnections between people and places. Students recognise that people have different perceptions of places and how this influences views on the protection of places. Students learn about how the territory of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples contains the Country and Places of many individuals and Language Groups.

Students pose simple geographical questions and collect information from different sources to answer these questions. They represent data in tables and simple graphs and the location of places and their characteristics on labelled maps that use the cartographic conventions of legend, title, and north point. They describe the location of places and their features using simple grid references and cardinal compass points. Students interpret geographical data to describe distributions and draw conclusions. They present findings using simple geographical terminology in a range of texts. They suggest action in response to a geographical challenge.

By the end of the year students are expected to:

• represent Australia as states and territories, and identify some of Australia’s major natural and man-made features;
• locate Australia’s neighbouring countries and some of their diverse characteristics;
• discuss how weather contributes to a climate type;
• identify the hot, temperate and polar zones of the world and the difference between climate and weather;
• compare what it would be like to live in a place with a different climate to their own;
• represent the location of places and their features by constructing large-scale maps that conform to cartographic conventions including scale, legend, title and north point, and describe their location using simple grid references, compass direction and distance;
• explain some different types of settlements, and classifying them into hierarchical categories, for example, isolated dwellings, outstations, villages, towns, regional centres and large cities.

Health Education

This area of study is designed to equip students for the challenging world of the 21st century, to ensure that students develop as people who take increasing responsibility for their own physical wellbeing, learning, relationships with others and their role within the local, national and global community.

Students explore the similarities and differences between people and the notion that different settings require different physical, social and emotional expectations and behaviour. They also explore the strategies they can use to enhance the different aspects of health.

By the end of the year the students are expected to:

• explain ways in which people can improve personal behaviours to enhance health and safety;
• identify factors and skills that enhance and build positive relationships with friends;
• contribute to the development of class protocols to create a positive learning environment in the classroom;
• identify factors that influence someone’s self-worth;
• identify the impact of different factors on health and wellbeing;
• identify strategies to manage stressful situations.

History

The Year 3 curriculum provides a study of identity and diversity in both a local and broader context. Students explore the historical features and diversity of their community represented in symbols and emblems of significance, and celebrations and commemorations.

 By the end of the year the students are expected to:

• describe how aspects of places in their local area have changed over time;
• compare photographs from both the past and present of a specific location to identify the nature of change or continuity, i.e. similarities and differences;
• identify and discuss the historical origins of an important Australian celebration or commemoration e.g. ANZAC Day;
• identify the role that people of diverse backgrounds have played in the development and character of the local community.

Science

Students are introduced to everyday phenomena for which science provides explanations. They explore the ways science is used in many contexts. They further develop the skills for scientific procedures and processes, such as designing, measuring, data collection and interpretation and implications for action. 

By the end of the year the students are expected to:

• recognise characteristics of living things such as growing, moving, sensitivity and reproducing;
• recognise the range of different living things;
• describe how heat can be produced, such as through friction or motion, electricity or chemically (burning);
• identify changes that occur in everyday situations due to heating and cooling;
• explore how heat can be transferred through conduction;
• read a thermometer to measure heat;
• investigate how liquids and solids respond to changes in temperature, for example water changing to ice or melting chocolate;
• explore how changes from solid to liquid and liquid to solid can help us recycle materials;
• predict the effect of heat on different materials.