Many Perspectives Shape Science: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one Human Endeavour idea: who is looking, and how they see the world, shapes what people notice, the questions they ask and the knowledge they build, and knowledge from every perspective is still checked against the world. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you already teach.

What a skill companion is

Human Endeavour ideas are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the science units a class teaches all year, such as Classifying Living Things, Energy Flow in Ecosystems, Earth, Sun and Moon, Balanced and Unbalanced Forces, The Particle Model of Matter, and Pure Substances and Mixtures. So this pack is not a full term of lessons. It is three reusable scaffolds, a map of where they fit, and a short stand-alone lesson for teaching the idea on its own first.

Start here: five minutes

1. Read the pairing map on the next page: it shows how a perspective shaped the science in each Year 7 topic.
2. Print the seasons sheet when a topic meets weather or the seasons, and the case-study sheet once per student.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year, whenever a class meets knowledge from a different perspective.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want a worked example of the idea.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the idea before folding it into a topic.

No science background needed

Each scaffold explains itself in plain words, and the answer sheet gives the seasons answers, the case-study answers, the card key with a reason for each, a model answer for every Year 7 topic and a quick three-level guide. In Year 6, students looked at how communities use science to make decisions. The step up in Year 7 is the knowledge itself: how a world view shapes what people watch for and ask, how long observation by First Nations Australians has built knowledge others missed, and why every claim, from any culture, is still checked against the world.

Working with First Nations knowledge: this knowledge belongs to its communities. Use seasonal calendars published with communities, such as those from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO, or invite a local knowledge holder through your school’s protocols, rather than making up signs or stories.

Slot the idea into your science lessons

Every science topic holds knowledge that was shaped by who was looking. This map shows one example in each Year 7 topic, what it shows, and which scaffold to reach for. You do not run these as extra lessons; you fold them into the science you teach.

The three moves, and the picture that backs each one

When you want a worked example on the board, open the interactive unit and use the picture that matches the move.

• Follow how long observation from one world view builds knowledge: “How a perspective builds knowledge”.
• Test a claim about a calendar against evidence, not custom: “Does a six-season calendar fit the land better?”.
• Check a local calendar against measured weather: “Average monthly rainfall in a tropical northern region”.

How the scaffolds build the idea

The seasons sheet reads a year of rainfall to see why four fixed seasons blur the weather of the tropical north, and starts a record of living signs in your own place. The case study follows the birds that spread fire, known to Aboriginal people long before it reached a science journal. The cards sort ways of treating knowledge: listening and checking, shutting it out, or taking it on trust.

How many seasons does the land have?

Average rainfall each month in a tropical northern region, in millimetres. The four fixed seasons say summer is December to February, autumn March to May, winter June to August and spring September to November.

Signs in our place

Teacher note: keep the record going all year; after a few months, ask which signs come back together.

The birds that spread fire

Across the tropical savannas of northern Australia, fire is part of the land, and birds of prey gather at the edge of a fire to catch the animals fleeing it. Aboriginal people have long known something more: some of these birds pick up burning sticks and drop them in unburnt grass, spreading the fire. The behaviour appears in ceremonies and is widely known to people on Country.

For a long time it was rarely written about in science. Savanna fires burn in remote places, few scientists are there to watch, and a bird carrying fire sounded hard to believe.

In 2017, a team of researchers published a paper that brought together the knowledge of Aboriginal people with reports from non-Aboriginal rangers and firefighters in several parts of northern Australia. They described black kites, whistling kites and brown falcons carrying burning sticks in their claws or beaks, sometimes again and again, to spread a fire. Some scientists pointed out that most of the evidence was what people had seen, not film or experiments, and called for more study. Aboriginal rangers, meanwhile, already plan for birds carrying fire across a firebreak.

How is the knowledge treated?

Cut out the cards and lay down the three grey heading cards. Sort each card by how the knowledge in it is treated: listened to and checked, shut out, or taken on trust. Be ready to say why.

Teacher note: four cards go in each pile. The answer sheet lists which is which, and why.

Through different eyes

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the idea on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. Groups look at the same scene as different people would, find the things only one view noticed, and plan how someone with another view could check them.

We are learning to

• explain how what people care about shapes what they notice,
• turn an observation from one view into something anyone can check,
• tell listening and checking apart from shutting knowledge out or taking it on trust.

Success criteria

• I can name something my role noticed that others missed, and say why.
• I can describe how someone with a different view could check it.

You need

• a large photo of an outdoor scene with water, plants, animals and sky on the board, or a walk in the school grounds,
• a role card for each group: a fisher, a farmer, a firefighter, a bird-watcher, a builder,
• the cards (scaffold 3), one set per table, and the free interactive unit on your board, if you have one.

Working with First Nations knowledge: if you extend the lesson with a seasonal calendar, use one published with its community, such as those from the Bureau of Meteorology or CSIRO, or invite a local knowledge holder through your school’s protocols.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Use three roles, and sort the cards in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Thinking a perspective is just an opinion, when what it notices can be checked like any other observation.
• Thinking that science has no world view, when every observer watches for some things more than others.
• Treating knowledge as right because it is old, or wrong because it is unfamiliar, instead of checking it.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: use two roles, each with a short list of things to look for.
• Bigger: take a published seasonal calendar for a region near you and compare its signs with your class’s record of living signs.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the seasons answers, the case-study answers, the card key, a model answer for each Year 7 topic, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Seasons in the data

1. Bars rise to 410 mm in Jan and fall to 1 mm in Jul. 2. The wet: Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar. The dry: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep. In between: Apr, May, Oct, Nov, the months when the rain builds up or eases off. 3. 250 + 410 + 370 + 320 = 1350 mm, out of 1713 mm for the year, about 79% of it. 4. The rain falls from 320 mm to 100 mm to 30 mm, so “autumn” holds the end of the wet and the start of the dry: two very different times. 5. A sign such as a plant flowering moves with the real weather, so the season starts when the land changes; a fixed date stays put even when the rains are late.

The signs-in-our-place record has no fixed answer; look for dated entries that say what was seen, not what was expected.

Case study: the birds that spread fire

1. Aboriginal people, who kept it in ceremony and passed it on through teaching on Country. 2. Any two: the fires burn in remote places with few scientists there; it sounded too strange to believe; the knowledge was kept in ceremony and stories rather than in journals that scientists read. 3. They gathered accounts from Aboriginal people and from non-Aboriginal rangers and firefighters in different places, and checked that the accounts agreed. 4. Fair, as long as it is asked of every claim and the knowledge is still taken seriously: asking for film is checking. It would be shutting it out to refuse to look, or to doubt it because of who held it. 5. A firebreak may not stop a fire if birds carry burning sticks across it, so fire plans should allow for it. 6. Noticed: Aboriginal people on Country. Missed: few scientists at remote fires. Checked: many separate accounts compared, in 2017. Used: rangers plan for fire crossing firebreaks.

Knowledge cards

Look for students who see that the “takes it on trust” cards come from every kind of source, a website, a science book, a garden tip, as well as from other cultures: checking is owed to all knowledge, including our own.

What a good answer sounds like

A quick three-level guide

A student at standard explains how a culture’s world view shapes what people notice and ask, and checks knowledge against the world whoever holds it. The idea grows all year, so keep the cards and the record of signs coming back.