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EDEC28003 - Curious Learners: Exploring STEM and Sustainability

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Young children are curious and active inquirers about their world, including STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and sustainability focussed curiosities. Through play, children investigate, experiment, test hypotheses, imagine and explore ideas. There is growing recognition that education about sustainability supports children’s active role in contributing to a sustainable future. A national focus on both STEM and sustainability in curriculum texts has pedagogical implications for teachers. In this unit, you will consolidate your knowledge in STEM disciplines and identify the pedagogies required to support children’s engagement and participation in STEM, drawing on and making links to relevant curriculum frameworks and policy texts. Drawing on key literature pertaining to sustainability, you will generate strategies that support child participation in building a sustainable, democratic, equitable and just society. The implications for your practice in early childhood contexts will be explicated. Case studies and scenarios from other countries will be included in the unit materials.

Details

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 50%
2. Portfolio 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Synthesise contemporary research pertaining to STEM to explore the importance of teaching it as an integrated suite of disciplines
  2. Generate possibilities for a STEM focussed inquiry that enables young children to represent and communicate their emerging theories and identify links to the relevant curriculum framework
  3. Communicate an analysis of the pedagogical implications with consideration given to supporting children to explore and represent their ideas
  4. Examine the literature to distil strategies to facilitate child participation in building a sustainable, democratic, equitable and just society and articulate reflections on the provocations presented in the literature
  5. Analyse observations of practice to explicate pedagogies that promote a focus on sustainability
  6. Implement and document a sustainability focussed project with children which documents their voices and representations and provides reflections on the importance of listening to children.

This unit contributes to meeting the curriculum content requirements outlined by the Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Written Assessment • • •
2 - Portfolio • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Knowledge •
2 - Communication • • • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • • •
4 - Research • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8