When the power goes off, Big Cuz, Nanna, Little J and Old Dog go to the beach. They use bread to catch hermit crabs, which in turn are used to catch a ‘bluebone’ fish. Big Cuz learns how to fish, Nanna makes a fire to cook the fish, and Little J finds a large clam shell to take to school the next day.

Evaluate - Compare observations with those of others

Theme - BEACH

Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to the Science curriculum.

Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:

• posing and responding to questions about the oceans, ocean environments, sand and shells, and their scientific features
• sourcing relevant information in response to questions about topics, such as ocean levels, what animals live in different parts of the oceans, what effects the conditions of the ocean, what is sand, and how shells are classified
• collecting data on the physical features of a beach and marine life in their local area
• predicting patterns of phenomena and responding orally to observations, information and descriptive texts
• documenting what they know about the sea, beach and marine animals in a report, chart and science journal
• acknowledging and learning about Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander cultural ways of living from the beach, stories and artworks.

As a culmination of the learning in the module, students could:

• Participate in an excursion to the local beach to explore the animal habitats, the sand and surrounding land features, shells and shell fish. Make a photo story of what students discover
• Participate in an excursion to a local museum to explore and examine a variety of shells and marine animals
• Engage with, and listen to an Aboriginal Elder or recognised representative and/or Torres Strait Islander Elder or recognised representative who visits the class to speak about the local Aboriginal Dreaming stories and/or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories about the sea, beach, marine animals, and local traditional technologies used to harvest food from the sea.
• Learn and use selected words of the local Aboriginal language and/or Torres Strait Islander language related to the sea, beach, shells, and marine animals, etc.
• Create a beach diorama in the classroom, and have students bring objects to add to the display as ‘Show and Tell’.
• View and analyse Aboriginal artworks and/or Torres Strait Islander artworks about their sea countries and that explore the sea creatures significant to local culture, e.g. Yolgnu Sea Country, Science in paintings, etc. A suggested resource: Living by the Sea, Yolngu Sea Country

Student evaluation tools

Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.

Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:

• Kahoot
• Quizlet

Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students.

Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:

• Learning Worm 

Teacher reflection tools

Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?

Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:

• Demonstrating impact 
• ‘How-to’ guide: Learning walks 
• Reflection on Practice Tool