Lessons for years 7 and 8

Overview

This page contains engaging lesson plans that can be used to create a gender neutral learning environment.

The Drone Search lesson is one that was specifically written for The GiST and includes Girls in Focus recommendations.  

A selection of lessons have had Girls in Focus recommendations added. 

The other lessons on this page are considered to be relevant STEM approaches which you may use to apply the Seven Principles for Gender Inclusive Lessons.

Girls in focus lessons

Impact Of Climate Change On Flatback Turtle Populations

Impact of climate change on Flatback turtle populations

The lesson follows an inquiry process in which students use a dataset to answer relevant questions about the turtle population. They consider how to analyse and display the data in order to effectively examine the impact of rising global temperatures on flatback turtle populations. They design a method of raising public awareness.

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Humpback Whales What The Data Reveals

Humpback whales: What the data reveals

The lesson follows an inquiry process where students use the dataset to answer relevant questions about the whale population. They consider what other data they would need in order to effectively examine the impact on humpback whales of sonar activity and noise from development.

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Light Up Soft Toy With Arduino 2

Light up soft toy with Lilypad

This project will explore two ways of controlling the flow of current to a LED using a button and switch. No programming is initially expected in this project, however once students are comfortable with connecting or sewing their circuits and attaching lights, a follow-up project that involves using a pre built Arduino program to light up a series of lights in order would be a useful next step.

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Exploring Data In Turtle Population Dynamics

Exploring data in turtle population dynamics

The number of eggs a female turtle lays in her lifetime influences the health of that species population. In this lesson we look at modelling data related to the number of eggs a female turtle lays in her lifetime, using real scientific data. Explore ways to model, interpret, represent and present data, creating an infographic to raise awareness about turtle conservation.

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Suggested lessons

Water For Our Vines

Water for our vines

Design and build a prototype of a water delivery system, including design options and plans to ensure that all the vines on a sloping land are watered to the level they require.

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My Energy Efficient House Rules

My energy efficient house rules

Re-design the given plan of an old house to make it more energy efficient within the existing property boundaries.

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Our Own Garden

Our own garden

Design a model of a garden given the available space. Include a planting guide for your garden based on certain constraints.

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Exploring Data Tracking Turtle Movements

Exploring data tracking turtle movements

By gathering data on marine turtles, scientists have evidence that helps them work out where turtles migrate and the journeys they take. Scientists can then help to reduce the threats to the turtles’ survival. In this lesson we look at satellite tracking using real scientific data. Explore ways to model, interpret, represent and present data.

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Game Design

Game design

This sequence of lessons integrates game design using scratch and a Makey Makey programming board.

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Hot Bots 2

Hot bots

In this series of lessons, students are set a design challenge to create a program to automatically switch on an air conditioner. For this project, students are introduced to the Arduino microcontroller and Arduino integrated development environment for programming. However, other similar microcontrollers could be used instead following a similar process. This lesson was designed by Cindy Thornton, Flinders Island District High School, Tasmania.

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Sphero Young Inventors

Sphero young inventors

In this lesson students will explore the use of Sphero in the everyday world by adding accessories to invent solutions to workplace or other problems or simply by inventing an adaptation to the device. In each case, they are to build the accessory and create the code required for the device to serve a particular purpose. This lesson idea was created by Celia Coffa.

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Minecraft Sustainable House

Minecraft Sustainable House

Students plan and build a sustainable house in Minecraft.

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Frog Habitats And Adaptation

Frog Habitats and Adaptation

Students explore habitats and investigate the adaptations different frog species need to survive in that habitat. They use the FrogID app to identify local frogs and design their own frog pond to meet the needs of local species. This project led by a female scientist: Dr Jodi Rowley.

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Engineering Materials For A Greener Planet

Engineering Materials for a Greener Planet

This set of STEM activities for primary and secondary students explores how engineers can solve significant environmental problems

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Biomimicry Lessons From Nature

Biomimicry - Lessons from Nature

This unit of work introduces students to biomimicry. They learn how to look at nature for inspiration to solve engineering and design problems. Students learn about linear and closed loop systems and design a lamp using principles of biomimicry.

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Solar Oven Design Challenge

Solar Oven Design Challenge

Students design and build a solar oven using passive solar design principles.

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Gecko Tape

Gecko Tape

Students learn about nanotechnology and make and test ‘gecko tape’. They create their own design for new products.

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Lunar Lander

Lunar Lander

Students design and build a lunar landing module to ensure survival of the crew. They compare their model’s performance with an actual moon landing and take risk factors and budgeting into account.

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Climate Change

Climate Change

This STEM Careers Pack is design to teach students about making well reasoned judgements about empirical and ethical matters. Students explore the science of anthropogenic climate change, and whether we have a responsibilty to future generations.

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Compressed Air And Water Rockets

Compressed Air and Water Rockets

Students design a water rocket to fit a rocket launcher. They test their rockets and evaluate changes to iterate on their design.

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David Attenboroughs Plastic Message

Deep blue: innovation for the future of our oceans

Select student activities related to the future of oceans that link to the Australian Curriculum for science, technologies, mathematics, and the arts.

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