Teaching Biological Sciences this year? Absolutely stumped on where to start?
This is the post for you! 💚
Introducing our brand new Biological Sciences Unit Plans for F-6! These incredible, comprehensive resources take care of all your planning for you, so all you need to do is print, prepare and go. How easy is that?
Read on for answers to our most frequently asked questions, helpful tips for getting the most out of our unit plans, and so much more! ⭐️
💚 Where’s Year 2?! This is by far the biggest question we’ve gotten since our Biological Science units dropped on the webby! The simple answer is this: the brand-new V9 Australian Curriculum doesn’t actually contain Biological Sciences for Year 2. The Science strand for Foundation – Year 2 has been simplified so that teachers only need to cover three of the sub-strands per year. This means you have more time to go in-depth on the other three areas in the early years and ensure your students have a solid foundation for Year 3 and beyond, when all four strands are once again included in every year group! How good is that? 😍
💚 What do your unit plans contain? Our Unit Plans are comprehensive packages designed to contain everything you need to complete a full 8-week inquiry-based learning unit. Each plan contains a PDF guide with a scope and sequence, curriculum links, individual lesson plans and links to external sources. Additionally, we’ve included worksheets, assessments and rubrics covering every curriculum code, an interactive PowerPoint presentation spanning the length of the unit, and a variety of displays including posters and word walls.
Each lesson has been carefully curated to ensure support for learners of every ability level and learning style. Our units follow the principles of inquiry-based learning, so your students will have ample opportunity to research, experiment and explore ideas throughout the unit. Different units also include a wide variety of additional elements depending on the lessons covered, including editable assessment rubrics, games, activities and so much more!
💚 What if I have more than 8 lessons to cover Biological Sciences? What if I have less?! No sweat! We’ve made sure to cater for lots of possible schedules with our unit plans. If you have more than 8 lessons, many of the included lessons can be easily extended over multiple sessions by increasing research time, allowing for more game play time or expanding on experiments. If you have less than 8 lessons, look out for optional lessons that can be removed or assessments split over multiple lessons that can be condensed into one. Curate your unit plan to suit you!
⭐️ Use the External Sources: Each of our Unit Plans features a curated list of optional external sources you can use to enhance or expand your lessons. These resources include websites, books, videos and a variety of both primary and secondary sources hand-picked by our creation team to benefit you and your class. Make sure to check the list out and see what you can use to bring your lessons to life!
⭐️ Organise Your Classroom Supplies: Biological Sciences is a subject that usually requires a fair amount of supplies to teach effectively, especially when it comes to putting together experiments! Our unit plans feature a variety of experiments with detailed lists of easy, low-cost supplies needed to complete them. Many of these experiments also come with optional alternatives should you be unable to obtain the necessary supplies – we understand it’s not always easy to get what you need 💛
⭐️ Alter Your Plans To Suit!: Got a student more inclined to write than draw? Enlarge their worksheet to A3 so they have more room to create! Need to cater to support students? Use the blank rubric options! Need to keep your fast finishers busy? Let them play a game from the unit plan or PowerPoint independently! These unit plans have been designed with flexibility in mind, so don’t be afraid to change things up to get the most out of them.
We’ve now got Unit Plans live on the webby for all of the following areas:
💚 Persuasive Writing: Years 3 & 5 💚
💚 Narrative Writing: Years 3 & 5 💚
💚 Civics & Citizenship: Years 3-6 💚
💚 Economics & Business: Years 5 & 6 💚
💚 Health: Interacting With Others: Years F-6 💚
💚 Health: Making Healthy & Safe Choices: Years F-6 💚
💚 Health: Identities & Change: Years F-6 💚
💚 Biological Sciences: Years F-6 💚
So the big question is: what’s next? 🤔
We’ve got a few plans in the works already (there might be some more Science units in the pipeline… 🤫) but we’d love to hear from you! What unit plans are you dying to see on the webby? Use our Suggest a Resource page to let us know what you need!
