Rationale
In a world that is increasingly culturally diverse and dynamically interconnected, it is important that students come to understand their world, past and present, and develop a capacity to respond to challenges, now and in the future, in innovative, informed, personal and collective ways.Aims
The F–6/7 Australian Curriculum for Humanities and Social Sciences aims to ensure that students develop:a sense of wonder, curiosity and respect about places, people, cultures and systems throughout the world, past and present, and an interest in and enjoyment of the study of these phenomena
Structure
The Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences may be implemented as a combined F–6 program or as an F–7 program. The F–6/7 curriculum is organised into two interrelated strands: knowledge and understanding and inquiry and skills.PDF documents
Resources and support materials for the Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences F-6/7 are available as PDF documents.F-6/7 HASS - Combined Sequence of Content
F-6/7 HASS - Combined Sequence of Achievement
Glossary
Year 7
Year 7 Level Description
Sustainable pasts, present, futures
The Year 7 curriculum deepens discipline-specific knowledge, understandings and skills with opportunities for integration across the sub-strands. Students study ancient societies of the East and West, how they are investigated, and what investigations show of their contribution to modern social, political and economic systems. Students investigate the nature of water as a natural resource in different global places and times, and the effects, issues and solutions of its use, management and value by different people, past and present. They also explore the liveability of places in relation to diverse people and places, familiar and global, past and present. Students examine work, consumers, producers and markets and their role in economic sustainability, across time and place. They investigate Australia’s commercial, social, legal and political institutions, processes and values and their role in enabling a stable, secular, multi-faith society, whereby organisations and individuals may operate effectively and individuals and groups may express their diverse identities.
The content provides opportunities for students to develop humanities and social sciences understanding through key concepts including significance; continuity and change; cause and effect; place and space; interconnections; roles, rights and responsibilities; and perspectives and action. These concepts may provide a focus for inquiries and be investigated across sub-strands or within a particular sub-strand context.
The content at this year level is organised into two strands: knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills. The knowledge and understanding strand draws from four sub-strands: history, geography, civics and citizenship and economics and business. These strands (knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills) are interrelated and have been developed to be taught in an integrated way, which may include integrating with content from the sub-strands and from other learning areas, and in ways that are appropriate to specific local contexts. The order and detail in which they are taught are programming decisions.
Inquiry Questions
A framework for developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills is provided by inquiry questions. The following inquiry questions allow for connections to be made across the sub-strands and may be used or adapted to suit local contexts: inquiry questions are also provided for each sub-strand that may enable connections within the humanities and social sciences learning area or across other learning areas.
- How is the ancient world investigated and why are investigations of ancient key people, events, ideas and developments significant in the modern world?
- How has the use, management and value of finite natural resources affected how people have lived and societies have evolved in the past and present, and what does this mean for future planning?
- What principles and processes underpin Australia’s cohesive society and stable economy and what is the role of political, economic and social institutions in developing and maintaining this?
Year 7 Content Descriptions
Questioning
Researching
Analysing
Evaluating and reflecting
Communicating
History
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the history sub-strand provides opportunities for students to develop historical understanding through key concepts including evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability. Students are introduced to an expansive chronology since ancient times to understand broad patterns of historical change (continuity and change, cause and effect). Students apply these understandings in a series of depth studies of ancient societies of the East and West, exploring how these societies are investigated (evidence, contestability) and what investigations show of their contribution to modern social, political and economic systems (significance, perspectives, empathy).
Inquiry Questions
- How do we know about the ancient past?
- Why and where did the earliest societies develop?
- What emerged as the defining characteristics of ancient societies?
- What have been the legacies of ancient societies?
Geography
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the geography sub-strand provides opportunities to develop students’ understanding of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability and change. The curriculum in Year 7 focuses on understandings about water as a natural resource and the liveability of places. Students investigate the nature of water as a natural resource and its flows through environments on different continents (environment, interconnections, place). Students examine how water is used and managed (sustainability), the causes and effects of phenomena such as scarcity and hazards (environment, change), and how diverse groups value water, (place, interconnection). Students also explore the liveability of places (place, space, environment, change) in relation to diverse people and places, familiar and distant (place, interconnection, environment). Students examine influences on the liveability of places (environment, interconnection, place) and strategies that enhance liveability, especially for young people (space, interconnection, sustainability, change).
Inquiry Questions
- How does people’s reliance on places and environments influence their perception of them?
- What effect does the uneven distribution of resources and services have on the lives of people?
- What approaches can be used to improve the availability of resources and access to services?