Catalyst • Junior Secondary Curriculum • Handbook 2019
Action
Project Year 7
Ancient Mysteries ( History )
Who were the bog bodies ? What killed Ötzi the Iceman ? How old is the Sphinx and who built it ? What was the purpose of the Stonehenge monument ?
These are just some of the questions about Ancient History that have fascinated people through the years . Historians are ‘ time detectives ’. They follow the process of historical enquiry in order to better understand the past . In this Action Project , students will try and solve some of the most puzzling and intriguing historical mysteries of the ancient world using all the resources of modern technology : historical databases , online specialist reports , CAT scans , radio carbon dating , digital reconstructions and chemical analysis .
To solve these riddles , students will use their ‘ toolkit ’ of inquiry skills to try and piece together an accurate picture of what happened in the past . Students will need to draw together evidence from artefacts , oral accounts , documents and secondary sources before using informed guesswork and intuition to become a ‘ master detective ’.
Discover the clues , evaluate the evidence , construct the hypothesis and solve the ancient mysteries throughout history .
Action
Project Year 7
To Bottle or not to Bottle ? ( Economics and Business )
So the saying goes ‘... water , water everywhere nor any drop to drink .’
This is hard to imagine given the global availability of fresh drinking water . We all know that we need to drink water to survive , and yet in our society it has evolved into a want . Driven by consumerism we now spend $ 500 million on bottled water every year in Australia . For each bottle consumed the water has to be pumped out of the ground , packaged , transported and chilled .
In this Action Project , students will consider water availability from an individual , national and international perspective . They will investigate why consumers are willing to pay over 1,000 times the cost of tap water for bottled water and the ways in which businesses adjust the price of products according to demand . Based on data analysis , collection of print and digital resources and service learning , students will be able to justify their answer to the question , ‘… to bottle , or not to bottle ?’
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