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.

Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 7, students explain the role of groups and the significance of particular individuals in past societies. They suggest reasons for continuity and change over time. They describe the effects of change on societies, individuals and groups and describe events and developments from the perspective of people who lived at the time. They identify past events and developments that have been interpreted in different ways. Students describe geographical processes that influence the characteristics of places. They explain interconnections between people and places and people and environments, describing how these interconnections change places and environments. Students identify the ideas, values and principles that underpin the institutions and processes in Australia’s political and legal systems. They explain the diverse nature of Australian society, and identify the importance of shared values in contemporary Australian society. Students describe the interdependence of consumers and producers in the market and identify factors and strategies that contribute to the financial success of businesses and individuals. They identify why individuals choose to work and the various sources of income that exist. Students recognise that people have different perceptions of places, events and issues and explain how this and other factors influence views on how to respond to an issue or challenge.

Students formulate significant questions and propositions to guide investigations. They locate and collect useful data, information and evidence from a range of primary and secondary sources. They examine sources to determine their origin, purpose and reliability and to identify past and present values and perspectives. They interpret and analyse data to propose simple explanations for distributions, patterns, trends and relationships, and evaluate and synthesise evidence to draw conclusions. Students sequence events and developments within a chronological framework, using dating conventions to represent and measure time. They organise, categorise and represent data in a range of appropriate formats using discipline-specific conventions. They make informed decisions by collaborating with others to generate alternatives, comparing the potential costs and benefits of each and developing and using criteria to make a reasoned judgement. Students reflect on their learning to propose individual and collective action in response to an issue or challenge, taking account of different factors and multiple perspectives, and predict the probable effects of their proposal. They present ideas, findings, viewpoints, explanations and conclusions in a range of communication forms that incorporate source materials, citations, discipline-specific terms, conventions and concepts.