Focus: school grounds and areas adjacent to the school. ‘Nature play’ experiences enable ES1 students to explore the features of natural environments.

Support students to observe their environment using their senses:

• Look – up, down and around. Notice details and changes.

• Listen – to natural and human sounds. Notice noise and quiet.

• Smell – the air, flowers and leaves. Notice the differences in smells of places.

• Touch – textures of natural and human features. Notice leaves, bark and surfaces underfoot.

Focus: features and organisation of the school grounds and local area. Fieldwork may also involve investigation of a place outside the local area, such as bushland, woodland, a beach, park, or a wetland.

As for ES1, sensory experiences and ‘nature play’ strategies enable students to examine the features of natural environments.

Opportunities:

• recording the weather

• describing human and natural features

• observing actions that care for places

• interviewing family members about connections to places.

Focus: fieldwork that investigates the characteristics of Australian environments and sustainable practices that protect them. This could include a case study of a vegetation type in a local natural area or a nearby national park or reserve. Fieldwork could also investigate a town or city, or compare cities in neighbouring countries.

Opportunities:

• recording natural and human features

• identifying types of vegetation

• observing interrelationships between plants and animals

• examining animal habitats

• interviewing people about their perceptions of places

• observing sustainable management practices.

Focus: influences of people on environments and environments on people. Fieldwork can be part of a case study that examines a current local or regional planning issue either within the local area or a more distant place. Examples include an agricultural area, a natural reserve or a city.

Opportunities:

• recording natural and human features

• recording human changes to environments

• observing environmental influences on people, such as landforms

• interviewing stakeholders on their perceptions of a land use

• identifying sustainable management practices.

Focus: increasing emphasis on independent observations, recording and data analysis.

Opportunities:

• investigating geomorphic and human processes that create local landscapes

• investigating the characteristics of a local place in order to assess liveability

• investigating own water use and local stormwater management

• investigating production and consumption of goods in the local shopping centre.

Focus: increased emphasis on independent observations, recording, data analysis and reporting.

Opportunities:

• investigating the environmental impacts of biodiversity loss in the local area

• investigating the characteristics of an urbanised local place

• investigating the cultural diversity of a suburb or town in terms of migration

• investigating aspects of human-induced environmental changes that challenge sustainability in local or regional landscapes.