August 2013 uestions for discussion

Want to see your name or compose a message in hieroglyphs? Write it out in Middle Egyptian (beginning around 2100 B.C.) phonetic symbols using the keyboard.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/egypt/translator.html

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an amazing and comprehensive timeline of Egypt’s ancient history. Identify the approximate beginning and end date of this ancient society and compare to other ancient societies around the world. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/index-africa.html

Visit Here is Today - a simple interactive page that explains the relative time differences between Day, Month, Year, Century, Millennium, Epoch, Period, Era, Eon and beyond! http://hereistoday.com/

CBBC Newsround – Thousands of people gather to protest in Egypt

A
Episode 21

6^th August 2013

ctivity

Students will find out about the advantages and how they can become involved in citizen science research. Students will build on their data collecting and recording skills by participating in a classroom survey.

Science / Science Inquiry Skills / Processing and analysing data and information Use a range of methods including tables and simple column graphs to represent data and to identify patterns and trends (ACSIS068) Construct and use a range of representations, including tables and graphs, to represent and describe observations, patterns or relationships in data using digital technologies as appropriate(ACSIS090) (ACSIS107) Construct and use a range of representations, including graphs, keys and models to represent and analyse patterns or relationships, including using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS129) Compare data with predictions and use as evidence in developing explanations (ACSIS221) Summarise data, from students’ own investigations and secondary sources, and use scientific understanding to identify relationships and draw conclusions (ACSIS130)

Science / Science Inquiry Skills / Evaluating Suggest improvements to the methods used to investigate a question or solve a problem(ACSIS108) Reflect on the method used to investigate a question or solve a problem, including evaluating the quality of the data collected, and identify improvements to the method (ACSIS131) Mathematics / Data representation and interpretation Pose questions and collect categorical or numerical data by observation or survey (ACMSP118) Construct displays, including column graphs, dot plots and tables, appropriate for data type, with and without the use of digital technologies (ACMSP119) Describe and interpret different data sets in context (ACMSP120)

1. 
   Describe the scientific study featured in the BtN Citizen Science story?
   
2. 
   Before European settlers arrived in Australia koalas only lived in Darwin. True or false?
   
3. 
   What do koalas eat?
   
4. 
   Why is it important to find out more about South Australia’s koalas?
   
5. 
   What has happened to koala populations in the eastern states of Australia?
   
6. 
   Describe how school kids helped with the koala count project.
   
7. 
   How was the data recorded?
   
8. 
   What is citizen science?
   
9. 
   What other sorts of citizen science research can people get involved in?
   
10. 
    Would you like to participate in citizen science research? Why or why not?
    

• 
  After watching the BtN Citizen Science story hold a class discussion.
  

• 
  What is citizen science? Find a definition.
  
• 
  Why is citizen science important?
  
• 
  How has it helped science?
  
• 
  Can you think of any examples of citizen science?
  
• 
  What is a bioblitz? Find out more.
  
• 
  Who can be a citizen scientist and what sort of skills do they need?
  
• 
  Would you like to be a citizen scientist? Why or why not?
  

As a class discuss how we are exposed to graphical representation of data in everyday life through the media, financial reports advertising and so forth. To best understand this, we need to know how the graphical representations were determined in the first place.

• 
  Provide students with the opportunity to build on their data collecting and recording skills by investigating the following research questions and then taking part in a classroom survey.
  

Students will hold a classroom survey, making sure that they ask two categorical and two numerical based questions. Here are some topics to consider:

• 
  eye colour, colour of dog, favourite food, favourite music, favourite subject, birth month (categorical)
  
• 
  height, arm span, foot length, length of index finger, reaction time (numerical, continuous)
  
• 
  number of brothers or sisters, number of pets (numerical, discrete)