STEM Year 5-6

Connect   

Use the activities in the Teaching Guide (below) to spark students’ curiosity before their zoo visit. Read through the Design Brief with students to introduce them to the big challenge.

Connect and Understand 

Students will conduct research and use their scientific observation skills to deepen their understanding of gorillas and develop problem-solving ability in a conservation setting.

Your zoo visit will include: Introduction (for arrivals between 9:45am – 10:00am), Zoo Teacher workshop (30 minutes), Safari Bus Tour (40 minutes) and keeper talks. Check out your Teaching Guide for other ideas of what to do at the zoo.

Understand  

Use activities in the Teaching Guide to deepen students’ learning back at school. 

Act

Use the Teaching Guide to bring design ideas to life and enable students to master their knowledge and skills in real-world contexts.

Science Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment (VCSSU074)

• Students will learn about how the features and adaptations of gorillas enable them to survive in the wild

The growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment (VCSSU075)

• Students will learn why gorillas are threatened in the wild and how the Gorilla Doctors are helping

Generate, develop, communicate and document design ideas and processes for audiences using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (VCDSCD039)

• Students will use the process of Design Thinking to identify, generate, grow and test their ideas

Investigate how ideas and problems can be disaggregated into smaller elements or ideas, how criteria can be used to identify gaps in existing knowledge, and assess and test ideas and proposals (VCCCTM031) 

• Students will develop their creative thinking skills through research, brainstorming and prototyping their solutions