Year 2: Small town, big history

​​Small Town, BIG History is a day program at Minjerribah or North Stradbroke Island. This unique and hands-on learning experience inspires students to be 'Champions for the Bay' as they explore the history of this significant site in the local community and discover what these special places reveal about the past and how this connects to the present.

Students are recruited as history detectives, exploring, uncovering and reporting on the history and special places of Moreton Bay, with their particular mission focused on Dunwich, where history's mysteries are to be uncovered.

On the day of the program, students travel by boat to Dunwich and visit three significant sites - One Mile, Polka Point and North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum. A variety of sources are interrogated by students as they build their understandings. These sources include an Indigenous cultural presentation by a local Quandamooka person, investigation of various historic sites and a study of objects and photographs from the past. Students reflect on concepts old and new; past and present; as well as significant places and Indigenous connection to these places.

Following the program, students showcase their historical understanding through the construction of a sequenced timeline.

Curriculum Intent

Humanities and Social Sciences

Inquiry and Skills

Researching

• Collect data and information from observations and identify information and data from sources provided (ACHASSI035)

• Sort and record information and data, including location, in tables and on plans and labelled maps (ACHASSI036)

• Sequence familiar objects and events (ACHASSI037)

Analysing

• Compare objects from the past with those from the present and consider how places have changed over time (ACHASSI039)

Evaluating and Reflecting

• Reflect on learning to propose how to care for places that are important and significant (ACHASSI042)

Knowledge and Understanding

History

• The history of a significant person, building, site and/or part of the natural environment in the local community and what it reveals about the past (ACHASSK044)

• The importance today of a historical site of cultural or spiritual significance in the local area, and why it should be preserved (ACHASSK045)

• How changing technology affected people's lives (at home and in the ways they worked, travelled, communicated and played in the past) (ACHASSK046)

Geography

• The idea that places are parts of Earth's surface that have been named by people, and how places can be defined at a variety of scales (ACHASSK048)

• The ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples maintain special connections to particular Country/Place (ACHASSK049)

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking

• Inquiring- identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas

Personal and social capability

• Self-management

• Social management

Literacy

• Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing  

Intercultural understanding

• Recognising culture and developing respect

• Reflecting on intercultural experiences and taking responsibility

Ethical understanding

• Exploring values, rights and responsibilities  

Cross-curriculum Priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities maintain a special connection to and responsibility for Country/Place

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples live in Australia as first peoples of Country or Place and demonstrate resilience in responding to historic and contemporary impacts of colonisation

• The significant contributions of Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the present and past are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally

Sustainability

• Actions for a more sustainable future reflect values of care, respect and responsibility, and require us to explore and understand environments

• Sustainable futures result from actions designed to preserve and/or restore the quality and uniqueness of environments

C2C
Unit 1 and 2 HASS – ‘Present Connections to Places’ and ‘Impacts of Technology Over Time’