Primary Connections resources are some of the most popular teacher resources available on Scootle, providing primary science teaching sequences aligned to the Australian Curriculum V9, including Finding features (Foundation), Scorching swings and slides (Year 3), and Communication matters (Year 5).

Alongside Primary Connections, Scootle offers curated a range of resources to help you engage your students in the chemical and physical sciences. With National Science Week coming up early in Term Three, now is a great time to check out the following comprehensive lesson sequences, modules, investigations, design challenges and interactive simulations, to help you with your planning!

The scientific journey

Explore engaging lesson plans and resources to bring the chemical and physical sciences alive in your classroom. Guide your students through the stages of discovery:

Explore F-2

Chemical

• The chairs for bears module for Foundation students investigates the common design features of chairs, and explores how different types of chairs fit different sized people, and have a range of purposes. (WA Department of Education)
•  Year 2–4 students can explore the physical properties of natural materials and how they can be changed or combined in this transportation innovation design challenge. (Queensland Museum)

Physical

• Introduce the concept of push / pull forces with your Year 1 and 2 students using the Indigenous spinning tops investigation, or explore how magnetism and electrostatic electricity can move objects without directly touching them. (Connected Learning Experience)

Investigate 3-6

Chemical

•  Use this DIY lava lamp lesson plan to enable students from Year 3–10 to observe chemical reactions and learn about the density of fluids. (NSW Department of Education)
• Students in Year 6–7 can create a solar still to investigate how coloured salty water transforms into clear unsalted water, in this solar still activity. (Waterwise Queensland)

Physical

• Engage Year 5–6 students in the interactive simulation circuit construction kit: DC, where students build a DC circuit with wires, batteries and various components, and experiment with conductors and insulators. (University of Colorado Boulder)

Build 7-10

Chemical

• Explore the connections between chemistry and food with your Year 7–8 students in this food innovation and molecular gastronomy lesson, experimenting with molecular gastronomy techniques and designing innovative food solutions. (The GiST)
• Build a molecule is an interactive simulation challenge in which Year 8 and 9 students need to build molecules from atoms, construct molecules from the chemical formula and experiment with combining atoms to build larger molecules. (University of Colorado Boulder)
• Year 10 students can learn about how genetics and DNA are inherited from parents in fertilisation, as well as how DNA replicates itself, through a sequence of 15 lessons in the atomic structures unit. (AERO and Ochre).

Physical

• Perhaps challenge Year 7 students to make kinetic sculptures that animate a character or scene, using a simple crank slider mechanism, with cranky contraptions. (Exploratorium)
• FLEET Schools: Forces and energy contains a terrific collection of learning activities for Year 8–10 students to explore the concept of energy and why it is crucial to our understanding of how everything in the universe works – from sub-atomic particles to the sun, mobile phones and the universe itself. (Fleet)
• In the falling for gravity activity, Year 10 students can calculate the acceleration of gravity using simple materials, a cell phone, and a computer to record, watch, and analyse the motion of a dropped object. (Exploratorium)

These resources can also be found in the Chemical Science Learning Path or the Physical Science Learning Path.

New resources are regularly being added to the Scootle collection. Log in to see the latest free, curriculum-aligned resources for Australian educators.

August is the perfect time to explore what Scootle has to offer to help you engage your students in literature and literacy. With Children’s Book Week being celebrated from 16th-23rd August and Literacy and Numeracy Week from 29th August – September 4th, Scootle has you covered!

These activities invite students to explore storytelling and the processes of imagination and connection through tools that span the curriculum.

Building blocks of narrative

• Creating a ‘Choose your own Adventure’ story is an excellent way for Year 3-6 students to design and implement a Digital Technologies project that makes use of branching. (Digital Technologies Hub)
• The 2025 Book Week theme is ‘Book an Adventure!’ Explore the conventions of Adventure Stories with Year 7-8 students, including possible scenarios, how to plot the story and examples of descriptive writing techniques. (Brett Lamb)

Making meaning – connecting with authors and texts

• Foundation-Year 6 students will enjoy examining and responding to The Truck Cat, written by Deborah Frankel and illustrated by Danny Snell and shortlisted for Picture Book of the Year.  (Reading Australia)

• Best-selling Australian authors Aaron Blabey (‘Bad Guys’ series) and  Andy Griffiths (‘Treehouse’ series) will inspire primary school writers, as they answer students’ questions about their early lives and their inspirations for writing. (Squiz Kids Q+A)

Craft and creative process

• What techniques do storytellers use to create characters? Year 3-6 students can create character sketches, after analysing how a character’s personality traits, actions and motives influence the plot of a story. Setting is also a significant element in fiction. Teach Year 7-10 students to use elements of mood and spatial order as methods of creating realistic settings in short stories. (Kennedy Centre)
• Explore the features and context of interactive fiction (IF) with Year 9-10 students through the unit Teaching with Videogames: Creative writing using Twine. Students will explore second person narrative perspective and plan, develop, build and review their own playable interactive fictions using open source Twine software. (ACMI)

These English resources can all be found in the Book Week/Literacy and Numeracy Week 2025 Learning Path.

New resources are regularly being added to the Scootle collection. Log in to see the latest free, curriculum-aligned resources for Australian educators. 

Educators are constantly seeking effective tools to enhance the learning experience for their students. One free online tool is Scootle’s learning paths, an easy way to build lists of resources and create structured progressions towards learning outcomes.  Here’s a simple guide on how to create a learning path in Scootle. 

Step 1: Define your goals 

Before creating a learning path, clearly define your educational goals. What are the key learning outcomes you want to achieve? Which aspects of the curriculum are you addressing? Having a clear set of objectives will guide your search for resources and the structure of your learning path. 

Step 2: Log in and set up 

Ensure you have access to Scootle by logging in with your credentials. All Australian educators are entitled to a free account; you can find out more about creating one in our blog article.  

Step 3: Search for resources 

Use Scootle’s search function to find resources. You can filter results by learning area, year level, resource type, and alignment with specific curriculum outcomes. For an engaging learning path, look for a variety of materials such as interactive activities, videos, lesson plans and quizzes that fit your educational goals. 

Step 4: Create your learning path 

Navigate to the first resource you’d like to add to your learning path. Click ‘Add to’, and a dropdown menu will show an option to create a new learning path. Fill in the name and description fields, and click ‘Add to learning path’ to add the resource. Repeat with each new resource, adding to the learning path you just created.   

Step 5: Select and organise resources 

Once you’ve found suitable resources, drag and drop them to reorder the learning path to create a coherent and logical sequence, which will help students build knowledge and skills systematically. Think about the progression of learning: start with introductory materials, move through to exploration and practice, and finish with assessment and reflection activities. 

 Step 6: Personalise your learning path for your audience 

You can edit the descriptive text that has been automatically imported with the resources and replace it with your own text, for example, questions for students or context from previous lessons. You can also add comments between items using the ‘Actions’ dropdown to further customise the learning path.  

Step 7: Share with your class and other educators 

Students can access a learning path anywhere and anytime, using a unique PIN and without the need for logins. You can find and share this pin by navigating to ‘My learning paths’ and opening the one you’d like to share. Students can then access your learning path using the url and PIN available on that page.  

A learning path can also be exported in a number of formats for use as a student worksheet, checklist of activities or assessment task.  

As you create and share your own learning paths through Scootle, you’ll be contributing to a growing, searchable bank of resources that all Australian educators can use. Search shared learning paths created by other educators to save time and benefit from the collective expertise of your peers. This collaborative approach enriches the portal, making Scootle an invaluable resource of curriculum-aligned learning paths built by teachers, for teachers.