Ausgeology › Years 3 to 10
Australian Curriculum v9 · Science & Geography
Earth science lessons, Year 3 to Year 10
Ten interactive lessons and a rock identification reference, each mapped to a content description in the Australian Curriculum (Version 9). Teachers can use them with a class and students can work through them on their own. Each lesson is taught a different way, and every one has notes for teachers, a glossary, read-aloud and text-size controls, and a printable activity in PDF and Word.
Years 3 to 6
Year 3 Science AC9S3U02 Inductive thinking
Under our feet: rocks, minerals and soils
Sort seven rocks in hoops, zoom into granite to find its minerals, test mystery minerals for hardness and streak, and measure which soil holds the most water. Then find Earth resources in a home and on a map of Australia.
Printable activity: Soil detectives
Year 4 Science AC9S4U02 5E sequence
The water cycle
A puddle disappears, drops grow on a cold glass and it rains inside a sealed bag, all before any of it gets a name. Then the cycle is labelled and the 2025 flood is followed across the desert into Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.
Printable activity: Puddle watch and bag watch
Year 5 Science AC9S5U02 Fair-test inquiry
Shaping the land
Weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition, starting with a boulder broken up by heat, ice, wind and roots. A stream table then measures the soil washed off a hill, one setting changed at a time, and says which runs were fair tests.
Printable activity: Plan a fair test
Years 7 and 8
Year 7 Geography (HASS) AC9HG7K01 to K04 Problem-based learning
Too much, too little: water in the world
Katherine floods in the wet season and relies on groundwater in the dry. Follow rain into the limestone and out through the springs, read the 1998, 2006 and 2026 floods off the river gauge, and propose a strategy for the town.
Printable activity: Katherine water inquiry
Year 8 Science AC9S8U03 Predict, observe, explain
Plate tectonics: around your plate
Walk the four edges of the Australian Plate, one convergent, one more convergent, one transform, one divergent, and build the scientific evidence for the theory of plate tectonics as you go.
Printable activity: Map the edges
Year 8 Science AC9S8U04 Explicit instruction
The rock cycle
Learn how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form and how long each change takes, with a model you control for each rock type, a worked example, then rocks to identify on your own. The examples include the geology of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Karlu Karlu.
Printable activity: Crayon rock cycle
Year 8 Science AC9S8U04 Reference and practice
Rock identification
Turn and magnify eighteen common rocks as 3D specimens, try the tests you can do at a bench, and follow a key with a picture at every step. Then name eight mystery rocks.
Printable activity: Key and record sheet
Year 8 Geography (HASS) AC9HG8K01 AC9HG8K03 AC9HG8K04 Virtual field trip
Landforms and landscapes
Take a virtual field trip to Nitmiluk Gorge on Jawoyn Country, visit five field sites and fill a field notebook, then decide how the gorge should be cared for and justify it in a field report.
Printable activity: Field sketch
Years 9 and 10
Year 9 Science AC9S9U03 Model-based inquiry
The carbon cycle and Earth's spheres
Build your own model of the carbon cycle, test its predictions against fifty years of carbon dioxide measurements from Kennaook / Cape Grim, and revise it.
Printable activity: Plot the record
Year 10 Science AC9S10U04 Argument-driven inquiry
Global systems and climate change
Australia has warmed by about 1.5 °C since 1910. Test three suspects against the Bureau of Meteorology’s record, then build an argument from the evidence about what is driving it and defend it against a critic.
Printable activity: Argue from the data
Year 10 Geography (HASS) AC9HG10K01 to K04 Structured academic controversy
Holding the line: coastal change on the Gold Coast
Cyclone Alfred’s waves moved millions of cubic metres of sand off the Gold Coast’s beaches in 2025. Model a storm and a beach’s recovery, rate six strategies, then argue both sides before agreeing on a recommendation.
Printable activity: Hold the line? Decision sheet