Higher Education Assessment 2: Science Curriculum Unit Plan Project

This project details a science curriculum unit plan, covering aspects such as learning differentiation, assessment strategies, and reflection on AITSL standards. It begins by outlining the science curriculum for Year 1, focusing on inquiry skills and the human element of science, and Year 2, emphasizing simple systems and observation. Assessment methods are described, aligning with VCE principles of validity, reasonability, equitability, balance, and efficiency. The project discusses differentiating instruction for students who are not meeting expected levels and enriching learning for proficient students. It includes an evaluation and annotation of a provided unit plan, locating evidence of good practice based on pedagogical literature and justifying changes made to align with examiner reports. Finally, it reflects on differentiating teaching to meet diverse learning needs and evaluating/improving teaching programs.

Assessment: 2 'Unit plan
including relevant
Assessment' Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Part A Learning and Differentiation................................................................................................3
Detailing the Science Curriculum for the unit plans...................................................................3
Describing how assessment will be done for finding out the whether the students are learning 4
Explaining how the students who are not learning as per the expected level will be
differentiated from the rest of the students along with the responsive actions to be taken.........5
Enriching and extending the learning for the proficient students................................................5
Part B Evaluate and Annotate a Unit Plan.......................................................................................6
Locating the evidence of good practice on the basis of pedagogical literature...........................6
Making and Justifying the changes made to the unit plan aligning with the examiner’s reports,
advice for teachers and exam preparation documents.................................................................6
Producing a flowchart for demonstrating the progression and development of complexity in
the content and its linkage with the assessment...........................................................................7
Part C Reflection..............................................................................................................................8
Differentiating teaching to meet the students’ learning needs across full range of activities.....8
Evaluation and improvement of teaching programs....................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The term unit plan refers to the plan that includes what all are the topics that needs to be
taught, how it will be taught, the purpose of teaching & learning such topics and also the
duration for which the entire learning process is to be completed. A unit plan is clear, purposeful
plan that is aligned with approaches to teaching and dynamic education policies. It is mainly
prepared for having its two folded benefits that are having guided by a plan of high quality and
creation of clear understanding among students. And secondly, alignment of student needs for
learning with the instructions. The current assessment will be divided into three parts. Part A will
be detailing the science specialisation’s curriculum for the unit plans, describing the assessment
of learning of students, explaining the response to students whose learning is not as expected and
outlining the ways to enrich and extend the proficient students. In part B provided unit plan will
be annotated, evaluated and amended. Lastly in this assessment AITSL standards will be
reflected up on.
MAIN BODY
Part A Learning and Differentiation
Detailing the Science Curriculum for the unit plans
Year 1 Science curriculum inquiry skills in science & studying of science as a human
attempt element is described in a 2 years’ duration. In this duration of two years, schools and
teachers in their planning refers to the standard achievement expectations along with the content
covered science understanding strand for ensuring its inclusion in both the years. Students are
taught how organising of observation can reveal patterns on which further assumptions
concerning phenomena can be made (Murphy, 2020). The first strand that is science
understanding covers biological sciences, chemical sciences, earth and space sciences, and
physical sciences. And the second strand that is Science as a Human Endeavour comprises nature
and development of science, and use and influence of science. Throughout the 2 year learning
process Science Inquiry Skills are developed in the learners which includes skills of questioning
and predicting, planning and conducting, processing and analysing data and information,
evaluating and communicating. VCE study guides are the extra resources that are created for
providing extra assistance to the students learning. Such study guides provide summary of the
entire topic along with the questions & answers typically for cracking the exams. These supports
students in their entire learning process and prepare them for examination. VCAL stands for The

Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning. For the students that are learning in Years 11 & 12
VCAL is a practical option available to them. The VCAL provides opportunities to students for
having work experience and developing their literacy, numeracy and personal skills in order to
prepare such students for their higher education, employment and training. There are basically
three level in VCAL namely, foundation, intermediate & senior. Introduction of VCAL in the
learning years of a student can begin in the Year 11 or 12 from the level that is best suited as per
the abilities & requirements of such student. The selection of units and modules that are
completely accredited are done on the basis of four strands that compulsory and comprises
Literacy & Numeracy Skills, Work Related Skills, Industry Specific Skills and Personal
Development Skills.
Describing how assessment will be done for finding out the whether the students are learning
The achievement standards that are expected from students by the end of Year 1 are their
ability in terms of describing objects and events which they come into touch in their routine lives
and the impacts of such interaction with objects and materials. Students are assessed on the basis
of whether they are able to describe the changes that are occurring in local environment and the
way by which distinct places meet living things need. Questions are asked to students on which
they are assessed on the basis of their responses (Fernando, 2021). Further they make
predictions, involved into investigations with respect to the daily life processes they are guided
to such investigations. Students are expected to follow the instructions that are given to them
during the year relating to the recording and sorting of observations by them and sharing it with
others.
The Year 2 students are assessed on the basis of their abilities to describe the parts of
simple systems (can be a stationary object, etc.) and their collision with any kind of direct
manipulation. Throughout the year 2 they are made to observe growth patterns and change
patterns of living things and make predictions on the basis of such observations. The flow of
matter is taught and utility of the resources provided by the Earth is aware to them. It is
understood by them that creating tables serves as a better platform in making and comparing
their observations. Hence the assessment of students is done on the basis of their responses to the
questions that are posed to them with respect to their experience and capability is predicting the
investigation outcomes.

The entire assessment done by the teachers follow the VCE assessment principles. These
principles states that the assessment should be reasonable & valid. It should be equitable,
balanced and efficient. The validity and reasonability principle is ensured by teachers by explicit
explanation of content of the curriculum that is to be assessed. The principle interprets that
students should not be assessed on the area that is outside to their study design’s scope. Further
the term reasonable means that supervision level, availability of resources, duration must be
same for all the students who are being assessed together. The results produced of the assessment
done must be comparable and fair for each of such student. Equitable means that the any of the
student can’t be provided with any kind of privilege or be disadvantaged from anything. This is
ensured for better and equal level of assessment (Murphy, 2020). Principle of balance says that
there should be balance with respect to the opportunities provided among the students for
demonstration of their learning. Assessment being efficient means there should be minimum
number of assessment, that can help the proper judgement by the teachers for assessing the
students.
Explaining how the students who are not learning as per the expected level will be differentiated
from the rest of the students along with the responsive actions to be taken
There are certain ways that will be used for identifying the students whose learning is
below the expected level for differentiating them from rest of the students. To begin with the first
way is to make sure that during the assessment the question whose answer is either yes or no will
be avoided. Next way is that the students will be asked to reflect upon what they have gained
from their learning session. Further short quizzes will be designed to be conducted in the
classrooms for checking comprehension. For the important concepts students will be asked to
paraphrase and summarize. Hand signals will also serve as a way for rating the level of
understanding among the students. Lastly journal reflections will be required to be filled by the
students.
Enriching and extending the learning for the proficient students
Differentiated teaching is the way by which teachers ensure that the instructions that are
given to students by them extends their knowledge and skills no matter what their initial point is.
The students with all level of performance are benefitted with the type of teaching and the
students belonging to the category of both below and above the level of expectations get covered.
The students that are gifted or highly capable gets benefitted from such teaching manner (Voss,

Lynch and Herbert, 2021). Teachers with the ability to differentiate effectively make use of data
sources of wide range for outlining the current knowledge of students and the content that they
are prepared to learn after the existing one. With the help of data teacher plans learning pathways
in well – structured manner such that the students of all levels have a point to get through in.
Identification of knowledge skills and gaps can also be done using the student data, supporting
interventions into learning. There are few areas namely, content, process, product and learning
environment based on which a teacher can differentiate.
For implement this type of differentiated teaching teacher follows certain strategies like
reflecting on the information that is known about the students and adding on the emotional,
behavioural and social concerns during making plans for programs of learning & teaching. The
curriculum, effective and appropriate learning environment, managing classrooms, formative
assessment are the components that will be used for the purpose.
Part B Evaluate and Annotate a Unit Plan
Locating the evidence of good practice on the basis of pedagogical literature
The term pedagogical literature review is a system by which teaching & learning
publications by researchers and scholars is synthesised. Going through and synthesising the unit
plan that is provided the evidence of good practice is that it is prepared in a well - structured
manner. The tabular representation of unit plan makes it easier to follow. The entire plan is
divided into nine columns and 12 rows making it easy to understand and follow. An effective
unit plan is one that provide concrete base on which a teacher can effectively master the
classroom with effective application of their specialisation (Gonzalez-Rivero and et.al., 2020).
The entire curriculum is mapped enabling teacher to carefully think and interact with students
making them meet the standards of course and grow themselves. It must be paid attention to that
whether the unit aligns with the objectives, standards and guidelines. It must a balance between
the strategies for learning and teaching, designing of tasks should be such that students of
differential needs engage with the learning process.
Making and Justifying the changes made to the unit plan aligning with the examiner’s reports,
advice for teachers and exam preparation documents
The 3rd, 4th, 5th lesson and stage of inquiry rows does not have any assessment and
resources criteria mentioned. For assessing the 3rd lesson students will be asked to present the
venn diagram in front of the other classmates. The attributes for judging will be confidence,

presentation skills, and understanding of lipids/ carbohydrates. The resources required are study
materials and skills to make presentation. Further for the assessment of lesson 4th that is proteins
verbal questions will be asked in the classroom. Grading of the students will be done on the
number of times they raise their hand to answer the question (Accuosto and Saggion, 2019). And
number of correct answers that are given by specific students. Resources required is just the
presence of students during the lecture and at the time of assessment and effective level of
interaction with student and teacher. The assessment of 5th lesson will be done on the basis of the
model of DNA / RNA built by the student. Resources will be study material provided to them
and the self- notes created by them.
Producing a flowchart for demonstrating the progression and development of complexity in the
content and its linkage with the assessment
Learning Focus
Cellular
Membran
e
Nucleic
Acids
Movement
across a
membrane
Concepts
of Unit 3
Biology
Bio
macromole
cules
Lipids/
Carbohyd
rates
WaterProteins
Organell
es
Apoptosi
s What are
Enzymes
Factors
affecting
Enzyme
action
ASSESSMENT
 Homework
 Quiz

Part C Reflection
Differentiating teaching to meet the students’ learning needs across full range of activities
The challenges that has been faced by me in implementation of differentiated teaching
are that it is highly difficult to follow such an approach in a classroom with a strength of more
than 20 students. In adapting to such a teaching way students of same level are to be grouped
together having a strength of more than 20 students means creation of 3 plus such groups which
is quite difficult to handle and give instructions (Ireland and et.al., 2020). The implementation of
differentiated teaching further requires need for more than a single teacher to effectively conduct
lesson plans and designed activities.
Evaluation and improvement of teaching programs
For the purpose of evaluating and improving my teaching program there are few small
strategies that are used by me. Firstly, I reflect upon my teaching to identify the areas where I
think that I can improve it. Further feedbacks are gathered by the me from my students for
making improvements to by teaching (Capp, 2020). Lastly assessing the students also serves as a
way by which I evaluate my teaching.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above study the meaning and importance of preparing correct unit
plan into the learning and teaching process have been clear. The assessment has covered the
details of science specialisation curriculum, described the ways by which students can be
assessed. The study has explained how students with learning outcome below expectations will
be addressed. In the assessment unit plan that was provided has been annotated and the areas
where amendments should be made are discussed. Lastly in the report reflection has been done.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Accuosto, P. and Saggion, H., 2019, August. Transferring knowledge from discourse to
arguments: A case study with scientific abstracts. In Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on
Argument Mining (pp. 41-51).
Capp, M. J., 2020. Teacher confidence to implement the principles, guidelines, and checkpoints
of universal design for learning. International Journal of Inclusive Education. 24(7).
pp.706-720.
Fernando, P. S., 2021. Mapping a Language (s) Journey in Science; From Learning Biology to
Teaching Biology: An Autoethnography. The Qualitative Report. 26(8). pp.0_1-2710.
Gonzalez-Rivero, M. and et.al., 2020. Monitoring of coral reefs using artificial intelligence: A
feasible and cost-effective approach. Remote Sensing. 12(3). p.489.
Ireland, C. and et.al., 2020. Curriculum differentiation’s capacity to extend gifted students in
secondary mixed-ability science classes. Talent. 10(1). pp.40-61.
Murphy, S., 2020. Participation and achievement in technology education: the impact of school
location and socioeconomic status on senior secondary technology studies. International
Journal of Technology and Design Education. 30(2). pp.349-366.
Murphy, S., 2020. The impact of school disadvantage on senior secondary science: A study of
patterns of participation and achievement in government secondary schools in Victoria,
Australia. Research in Science Education. 50(4). pp.1603-1618.
Voss, R., Lynch, J. and Herbert, S., 2021. Teacher concerns about competency-based
mathematics education in a rural Australian VET institution. Journal of Vocational
Education & Training, pp.1-23.
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