YEAR 5 - YEAR 6
Join an Education Officer live from the comfort of your own classroom and connect with nature on an adventure through the magnificent forests of the Dandenong Ranges. Using the power of STEM based inquiry, join our education officers on Puffing Billy to examine and explore the past and present design and technology systems of the railway. Students think critically, explore ideas, and gather information. Using online videos, student workbooks and learning resources, students explore data, innovative ideas, use design theory and suggest design solutions that contribute positively to meet community needs for a sustainable future.
During their virtual visit!
With the guidance of a Puffing Billy Railway Education Officer students will engage in online content and be immersed amongst wildlife and habitats on their journey through the Dandenong Ranges. Students will learn valuable observation and classification skills to determine various technologies and energy sources used by the Railway throughout its history. By understanding tools, materials, engineering systems and the costs that are required by the railway they will investigate ways to create a train that is sustainable for the future. They will investigate challenges to the railway over time and the importance and historical significance of people and volunteers to the Railway. Using design theory students will develop innovative systems to evolve the Railway in the future. Using post visit resources students are encouraged to undertake experiments to investigate the creation of steam, the importance and use of tools and STEM for the railway in the past, present and future, the challenges faced when upgrading the visitors centre and reflect upon the effect that the railway has on the natural habitat and biodiversity.
Curriculum links
| Curriculum Area | Strand | Sub-Strand | Content Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design and Technologies | Technologies Contexts | Engineering principles and systems | Explain how electrical energy can be transformed into movement, sound or light in a product or system (VC2TDE6C01) |
| Materials and technologies specialisations | Explain how characteristics and properties of materials, systems, components and tools affect their use when producing designed solutions (VC2TDE6C04) | ||
| Creating designed solutions | Investigating and defining | Investigate needs or opportunities for designing, and the materials, components, tools and processes needed to create designed solutions (VC2TDE6D01) | |
| Generating and designing | Generate, iterate and communicate design ideas, decisions and processes using technical terms and graphical representation techniques, using manual and digital tools (VC2TDE6D02) | ||
| Science | Science as a human endeavour | Use and influence of science | Scientific knowledge, skills and data can be used by individuals and communities to identify problems, consider responses and make decisions (VC2S6H02) |
| Science Understanding | Physical Sciences | Materials may be electrical insulators or conductors; energy can be transferred and transformed in electrical circuits where the components of a circuit play particular roles in the function of the circuit (VC2S6U09) | |
| Biological Sciences | Habitats can be described by their physical conditions; changing the physical conditions of a habitat, including by human activity, may affect the growth and survival of organisms (VC2S6U01) | ||
| Science inquiry | Planning and Conducting | Repeatable scientific investigations to answer questions can be planned and conducted, including, as appropriate, deciding the variables to be changed, measured and controlled in fair tests, considering potential risks, planning for the safe and ethical use of equipment and materials, and obtaining permissions for investigations conducted on Country and Place or in protected areas (VC2S6I02) | |
| Equipment can be used to observe, generate, measure and record data with reasonable precision for repeated measurements, using digital tools as appropriate (VC2S6I03) | |||
| Processing, modelling and analysing | Data and information can be organised and processed to show patterns, trends and relationships by constructing representations including tables, graphs and visual or physical models (VC2S6I04) | ||
| Evaluating | Methods and findings can be compared with those of others to identify sources of error, to select evidence in support of reasoned explanations and conclusions, and to develop further questions for investigation (VC2S6I05) | ||
| Mathematics | Measurement | Choose appropriate metric units when measuring the length, mass and capacity of objects; use smaller units or a combination of units to obtain a more accurate measure (VC2M5M01) | |
| Measure, calculate and compare elapsed time; interpret and use timetables and itineraries to plan activities and determine the duration of events and journeys (VC2M6M03) | |||
| Probability | Construct a grid coordinate system that uses coordinates to locate positions within a space; use coordinates and directional language to describe position and movement (VC2M5SP02) | ||
| Statistics | Acquire, validate and represent data for nominal and ordinal categorical and discrete numerical variables to address a question of interest or purpose using software including spreadsheets; discuss and report on data distributions in terms of highest frequency (mode) and shape, in the context of the data (VC2M5ST01) | ||
| Number | Use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving rational numbers and percentages, including in financial contexts; formulate the problems, choosing operations and using efficient mental and written calculation strategies, and using digital tools where appropriate; interpret and communicate solutions in terms of the situation, justifying the choices made (VC2M6N09) | ||
| History | Historical Concepts and skills | Chronology | Sequence significant events, developments and the lives of individuals chronologically to describe continuity and change, and causes and consequences (VC2HH6S02) |
| Visual Arts | Developing Practices | Develop visual arts skills by experimenting with visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials (VC2AVA6D01) | |
| Creating | Plan and create artworks using visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials to communicate ideas, perspectives and meaning (VC2AVA6C01) | ||
| Geography | Geographical skills | Geographical inquiry | Locate, collect and organise information and data from primary and secondary sources, including from fieldwork (VC2HG6S02) |
| Interpret and analyse information and data in a range of formats to identify and describe patterns and trends, or to infer relationships (VC2HG6S04) | |||
| English | Literacy | Applying, interpreting and evaluating | Use comprehension strategies, such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning, to evaluate information and ideas to build literal and inferred meanings (VC2E5LY09) |
Curriculum Resources
Puffing Billy Railway offers a range of pre and post excursion curriculum-linked resources to support teaching and learning in the classroom and at home. All resources are based around the topics of Energy, Force and Motion, Past and Present, Design and Technology and Biodiversity.
What's the source?
Tracks over time
Build a bridge
Where is the wild?
The power of steam
Tools from the past
Building the visitor centre
The biodiversity challenge
Teachers are welcome to download this workbook for the students to use while they are onsite at Puffing Billy Railway.
- Steaming STEM Workbook | Download
Enquiries
Enquire about our guided excursions via our online form.
Please contact the Education team for any further questions by emailing [email protected] or calling 03 9757 0700.
