The class is taking turns hosting ‘Aaron’ the class mascot, taking him on adventures. It is Little J’s turn, so Little J, Nanna, Big Cuz, and Old Dog take Aaron on Country to look for mica rock, and along the way they photograph the expedition. Distracted by the events of the day, Little J loses Aaron and the family enrols the help of Uncle Mick, a Search and Rescue officer, to return him.

Evaluate - Compare observations with those of others

Theme - FAUNA

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

Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:

• identifying Australian animals as diurnal, crepuscular and nocturnal
• describing time and the transition of time from night to day, and the twilight time in between.
• comparing animals and their various physical characteristics that make them good hunters.
• categorising the different characteristics of birds, reptiles and mammals.
• acknowledging and learning about the stories, tools and technologies Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples hunt with, and listen to and recount stories about owls and echidnas.

As a culmination of their learning in this module, students could

• Set up a night-vision camera somewhere secure within the school grounds to capture images/evidence of nocturnal animals. Or, access footage from Zoo webcams to see what their animals get up to at night, such as Animals at Home (Live), Zoos Victoria.
• Play a game of ‘Celebrity Heads’, in which some students sit with their backs to the IWB/board. Write the name of one of the animals that was part of the class investigation, above their head. Students need to ask questions to determine if this is a bird, a reptile, marsupial, or mammal, and guess which animal it might be.
• Explore sound by having students make a Bee Hummer. Have students predict will happen when they make and trial the Bee Hummer; then explore students’ observations and thoughts about how vibration (in this case, of the rubber band) creates noise, What is an Aboriginal Emu Caller?

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, construct a self-evaluation as a poll, rating the students’ responses using.

• Kahoot
• Quizlet

Use Early Years writing using rubrics (PDF) to provide feedback to students.

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

• Learning Worm (PDF), Eduweb, DET Victoria

Teacher reflection tools

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

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

• Demonstrating impact (PDF), AITSL
• ‘How-to’ guide: Learning walks (PDF), AITSL
• Reflection on Practice Tool, AITSL