Inquiry

Machines

What is our purpose? To

Transdisciplinary theme:
How the world works.
Central idea:
Humans have an innate need to imagine, design and invent
machines to improve our way of life.

1. Summative assessment task(s):

Taking Action:
BTN: Age care App
Working from a design brief.
Make your own machine that you feel is important to helping
people.
Look at the needs of people in need.
Goal: Design a machine that helps people to make their lives
easier.
Problem or challenge: Do we know what the need is?
Obstacle to overcome: To think about and meet the need of our
audience.
Role: Engineer
You have been asked to: To invent a simple machine to solve a
problem.
Job is: to design, follow the process, test and/or present a
product. Students have to gather materials, and reflect.
Your clients are: Students are to identify their audience. They

School: Alamanda K-9 College

School code:
5528
Class/grade: 3
Age group: 8-9 years
Teacher(s): Suzi Koneski, Rachael Cunningham, Chloe Linnell,
Danielle Colling, Ed Ezzy, Ellie Sunderman, Brooke Danaher, Niki
Sylaidos
Date: 2016
Proposed duration: 6 weeks

2. What do we want to learn?

Key

concepts:
Form
function
Change

Lines of inquiry:

Reasons for inventing simple machines.

How simple machines work to help us.

Certain circumstances lead to the creation of important inventions.

Understanding forces and energy help people to create new inventions.

Simple machines has evolved over time.

Teacher questions:

Why do we invent?

Why do we need machines?

will need to convince their clients buy their products.

Why is it important to invent?

Product/ Performance and Purpose. Student reflection

Do machines improve our way of life?

How do forces work?

What different forces are there?

How have simple machines evolved over time?

3. How might we know what we have learned?

Formative assessment(s):
Provocation:
Students will be given materials to move an object from spot A
to Spot B without using their hands or specific instruction.
Students have to think, design and move object from A to B.
Students will have to hypothesise, conduct experiment, draw
diagrams and record their findings and conclusions.
ARTEFACT:
Students can make something or bring from home, e.g.
Lego. Students will need to present their artefact to the
class.

4. How best might we learn?

Tuning in:
Looking at Videos, pictures of inventions and
annotating them. Student s will compare and contrast
two or more products to look at their similarities and
differences. (Venn Diagram)
Start off with summative assessment. This will be the
design brief.
Showing students end result. They will discuss ways of
achieving this (teacher guided linking to lines of
inquiry and teacher questions)
Reading: - Non-fiction
- Online reading
- Use a range of strategies effectively to find
relevant information in text. Eg: use of table
of content and index
- Identify the effect on audiences of
techniques. For example, shot size, vertical
camera angle, and layout in picture book,
advertisements and film segments
- Identify the typical structures and language
features of a range of text types:
procedural, explanation, discussion and
informative

Develop a criterion for establishing personal

preferences for literature
Speaking and Listening:
-

Plan, rehearse, and deliver presentations

incorporating learned content and taking
into account the particular purposes and
audiences.
Incorporate new vocabulary
Understand that social interactions
influence the way people engage with ideas
and respond to others for example when
exploring and clarifying the ideas of others,
summarising students' own views and
reporting them to a larger group
Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of
sources into students own texts including
vocabulary encountered in research

Writing: Procedure
- Design briefs
- Scientific reports
- Uses a plan to organize ideas
- Signals cause and effect using if, then,
because, so, since, result in, rings about,
hence, consequently, subsequently
- Developed agreed criteria for text structure
and language features to edit own and
others work.
- Spelling patterns and investigations such as
double letters depending of the childrens
need.
Numeracy:
- use scaled instruments to measure length,
mass and capacity

choose appropriate unit of measure for

lengths, area and capacity
Number- four operation ( worded problems/
multi step equations)

Provocation: BTN (Age care App)

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4247989.htm

GRAPHIC ORGANISERS - Venn diagrams, 6 thinking hats.

Personal Experiences
Home Work Presentation to the class.

Finding out:
Students will be introduced to the design brief and think about
the need for an invention.
Students will be introduced to the summative assessment.
Students will be guided on how to create a simple machine.
Eg: a crane. (Procedural text)
Students will need to find a demand for their
product/invention. (survey, graphing, tally etc)
Looking at simple machines in the past and present.
This can be a simple T-Chart.
Sorting out:

Students will begin their design brief. They will investigate,

gather materials, identify their audience and market their
product.

Using the science inquiry approach, students will test their

hypothesise etc
Excursion to Science works

Going further:
Students will present their product to an audience and receive
feedback for further improvements

Making conclusions:
Students will reflect on their design brief, and evaluate if
their product/machine/invention met its intended purpose.
What have students learned about how machines are
continually changing/evolving to improve our way of life.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

Duct tape, String, paper towel, plastic spool, rubber bands, clean empty bottles, caps, balloons, foil, cardboard boxes,
straws, pipe cleaners, plasticine, plastic cups
WEBSITES:
BTN
Ted talks
https://au.pinterest.com/chlopoh14/humans-have-an-innate-need-to-imagine-design-and-i/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U
Brain Pop!!!! Lots there

AusVels:

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

Evidence of students understanding:

Evidence of connections between the central idea and the

transdisciplinary theme:

Suggested improvements:

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

What activities developed an understanding of the key concepts?
What activities demonstrate the learning and application of
transdisciplinary skills?

What activities develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or

attitudes?

9. Teacher notes