BTN and Kid Architects, Built Environments

The Stage 3 students continue to investigate the built environment in the school library.

The Kid Architects story from BTN (“Behind the News”) should prove useful.

This month has also seen the revision of plans for Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s signature art project for the Sydney CBD: a massive metal “Cloud Arch” structure, which would tower over the intersection between the Sydney Town Hall, Queen Victoria Building and Woolworth’s Corner, with the light rail tracks passing beneath. Since first being announced, the structures shape has been refined but the cost has almost quadrupled. See the Daily Telegraph‘s story HERE.

Sydney’s new light rail project: Stage 3 Built Environments

Our Stage 3 students are exploring the built environment in their current geography unit. Some of these students did work on the planning that went into Sydney’s current light rail projects when they were in Stage 2, so I will need to establish some baseline data as to their current field knowledge on the topic during the library sessions this term.

Here are some of our useful Youtube clips:


Sydney’s Light Rail future with audio commentary – Transport for New South Wales


Sydney Light Rail flythrough – May 2015 [Sydney CBD]


Western Sydney Light Rail concept flythrough [Parramatta CBD]

The students are probably also aware of the recent building projects (Thornton Estate) and our local railway station modifications at Penrith:


Future of Sydney – Penrith

Researching Museum Railway Station

City Circle Loop
City Circle Loop signage, Museum Station, Sydney, NSW.

3 Museum Station

A Flickr slideshow about Museum Station, Sydney, is HERE. Stage 2 students are researching underground railway systems as part of their science and technology unit, Buildings and Bridges.

And on through the underground stations (and Circular Quay) of Sydney’s City Circle Loop:


City Circle hi def hi speed

The ugly duckling

This weeks fairy tale for Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students is The ugly duckling by Hans Christian Andersen. We will be using the picture book adaptation by Masumi Furukawa (Flip up fairy tales series by Child’s Play, 2006).

Ugly duckling
The ugly duckling

Hans Christian Andersen bust
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) bust

Hans Christian Andersen on Observatory Hill
Hans Christian Andersen on Observatory Hill, Sydney

Digital stories:

The ugly duckling, an assembly item by Class 2FR (from the year 2010)

The ugly caterpillar, a digital fairy tale by Class 1K (also from 2010), loosely based on “The ugly duckling”

Cockatoo and Tiger, a digital narrative by the other half of Class 1K (2010), also inspired by “The ugly duckling”.

Next week, the work will be followed up with an investigation into the attributes of ducks. The books, What is a bird? by Feana Tu’akoi (Scholastic, 2007) and Amazing facts about Australian birds (Steve Parish discover and learn, 1997) by Pat Slater, will be contrasted with the fictional ducks featured in Duck in the truck (Picture lions, HarperCollins, 2000) by Jez Alborough, Vote for Duck (Pocket, 2004) by Doreen Cronin & Betsy Lewin and The goat, the duck and the bale of hay (Viking, 2004) by Rachel Flynn & Tom Jellett.

Focus on towers and skyscrapers

Continuing with our work on Buildings and Bridges (Science & technology), this term Stage 2 will focus on towers and skyscrapers. Here are some useful Youtube clips, which we will be comparing using a SCUMPS matrix:


Skyscrapers of New York City – Great attractions, USA


Empire State Building: New York CityPASS attraction, USA


Centrepoint Tower commercial (1980s), Sydney, Australia


Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Building and bridges for Stage 2

Our Stage 2 students are about to commence a Guided Inquiry science & technology unit on “Buildings and bridges” (Built environments strand). It’s part of a two-year cycle, so the first thing I did was go back through the blog to see what online resources I used last time.

Although I was responsible for developing field knowledge last time, the emphasis was on HSIE (Human society & its environment), but some of the Youtube clips on Introducing British colonisation will be very useful.

Some excellent footage of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney’s CBD:


Queen Victoria Building, Sydney

Interesting to see an outsider’s view of the Sydney Opera House:


Sydney Opera House – Great Attractions (Sydney, Australia)

Supplementing this material will be the Flickr slideshow I created of local bridges two (or three?) cycles ago. How time flies!

Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge and other bridges

As with last year’s Guided Inquiry units, the brief clips will be discussed and consolidated after considering the students’ “Plus, minus, interesting” matrices, which will encourage/develop some note-taking skills.