We’ve just released our new Year 7-10 resources for Science, aligned to the Australian Curriculum 9.0. It's everything teachers need to reduce prep time (slides, activities, worksheets, pracs). This is the only resource that explicitly embeds scientific skills to put students on track for success, especially in their senior years.

Here’s a set of slides for Year 7 Food chains and food webs (including a skill sharpener) and an accompanying student question set to get started, with some useful tips and tricks outlined below.

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Editable teacher slides

The editable teacher slides contain:

• theory to cover one learning intention from a broader chapter, which in this case is "I will be able to construct and interpret food chains and food webs"‍
• a hook question to glean prior knowledge and engage students
• detailed theory slides, including a Sum it up slide
• a skill-based activity to consolidate learning
• two multiple-choice questions to assess student understanding
• a revisit to the hook question to see what students now know,
• an opportunity for self-reflection of the specific success measure.

Top tips for using the editable slides:

• After discussing the What do we know? hook question with students, distribute the Sum it up theory slide to each student either digitally or as a hard copy. This will serve as a roadmap for the lesson, incorporating dual coding theory to help with connecting concepts and establishing a clear mental framework of the key ideas.
• Encourage students to actively engage with the material by annotating the slides while explaining the theory. They can add any additional information or insights that enhance their understanding. The annotated slide can then be used for revision. 

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Skill sharpener activity

The skill sharpener activity is directly linked to the lesson learning intention, to reinforce theory while also focusing on a specific science inquiry skill. Teaching science skills can be easy to miss, so we’ve made this explicit and embedded within the content.  The activity can be differentiated to suit students’ needs using the achievement standards at the bottom of the slide.

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Top tips for using the skill sharpener activity:

• Provide a version of the answer slide with some answers omitted for students to complete if they need scaffolding. 
• Challenge students by leaving the Obtains energy from column blank, requiring them to process the data themselves. 
• For early finishers, encourage them to summarise the energy loss at each trophic level for at least one food chain within the web.

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Question sets

• Each learning intention is paired with a question set.
• Section A includes theory review questions while Section B features exam-style, short answer questions to develop scientific skills.
• Our questions are classified according to their various levels of cognitive demand (or 'spiciness')
  • Mild questions test knowledge 🌶️
  • Medium questions require reasoning and analysis 🌶️🌶️ 
  • Spicy questions call for synthesis and new ideas 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 

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‍For more information about our 7-10 Science resources click here.