HASS · Year 1

Active learning ideas

Evolution of Transport

Active learning helps Year 1 students connect abstract ideas about change over time to their own experiences. When children move, observe, and discuss transport, they grasp how innovation shapes daily life in tangible ways.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9HASS1K03

• 20–30 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Simulation Game
• 20 min · Whole Class

Simulation Game: The Great Race

Students 'travel' across the basketball court using different methods: walking, 'riding' a horse (skipping), and 'flying' a plane (running). They discuss which was fastest and how tired they feel after each.

How have the ways people travel changed from the past to today?

Facilitation Tip

During The Great Race, circulate and ask guiding questions like 'What helped your boat move faster?' to keep students focused on cause and effect.

What to look for

Provide students with a drawing of a horse and cart and a drawing of a modern car. Ask them to write or draw one way travelling by horse and cart is different from travelling by car.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Gallery Walk
• 30 min · Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Transport Through Time

Display images of a canoe, a tall ship, a steam train, and an electric car. Students move in groups to rank them from 'oldest' to 'newest' and explain what 'clues' helped them decide.

How is traveling by car different from the ways people travelled long ago?

Facilitation Tip

For Transport Through Time, position the timeline at child height and include images of First Nations trade routes to challenge assumptions early.

What to look for

Ask students to stand up if they have ever travelled by car, bus, train, or plane. Then, ask them to sit down if they have ever travelled by horse or walked everywhere. Use this to start a brief class discussion about how travel has changed.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Think-Pair-Share
• 20 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Why Did It Change?

Partners discuss one problem with a horse and cart (e.g., it's slow, it needs food) and how a car solved that problem. They then think of one problem with cars today (e.g., pollution) and how future transport might fix it.

Why do you think people invented new and faster ways to travel?

Facilitation Tip

In Why Did It Change?, give pairs sentence starters like 'People used horses because...' to help articulate reasons behind change.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Why do you think people wanted to invent faster ways to travel?' Encourage students to share their ideas, focusing on reasons like visiting family further away or getting goods to market more quickly.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teach this topic by starting with what students know. Use simple comparisons like walking versus riding a bike to introduce the idea of 'getting somewhere faster.' Avoid overwhelming them with dates or technical terms. Focus on stories—like a family traveling across country by wagon or a child flying to visit grandparents—so they see human-scale impacts of innovation.

Successful learning looks like students describing at least two ways transport has changed, giving one example of why speed matters, and recognizing that older travel methods still matter today.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During The Great Race, watch for students who assume walking is the slowest option. Redirect by asking, 'Could a person walk faster than a horse? How?'

  During Why Did It Change?, use the misconception as a prompt: 'If people in the past didn’t travel far, why did they need horses or boats? Share examples like First Nations trade routes or long ocean journeys to show travel happened, just differently.'

• During Transport Through Time, listen for comments like 'Old stuff is worse.' Redirect by pointing to images on the timeline and asking, 'What good things do you see about walking or sailing?'

  During Why Did It Change?, introduce the idea of trade-offs: 'Faster cars help us get places quickly, but what might be a downside? What do we lose when we don’t walk?'

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Methods used in this brief

• Simulation Game
• Gallery Walk
• Think-Pair-Share