Year 7 Science · Unit 4 · Lesson 11
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Learning Goals
Compare the two accounts
Complete every empty cell.
| Question | Yolngu Cultural Knowledge | Scientific account |
|---|---|---|
| How is it passed on or kept? | ||
| How does it describe or explain the Moon–tide link? | ||
| What was it built from? | ||
| What can it be used to predict? |
Fix the wording
Sam’s draft for a class poster
(1) Aboriginal people believed the Moon controlled the tides. (2) This is an old myth, but science has the real facts. (3) We should find every sacred sky story we can and put it on the poster.
1. Each of Sam’s sentences is inaccurate or disrespectful. Rewrite each one so it is accurate and respectful, using what the lesson says.
2. From Moon phase to spring tide: fill in the two blank boxes. Each box is caused by the one before it, reading along row 1 and then row 2.
Read the data: Jo’s tide log
Scenario
For three months, Jo checked the tide at a jetty every day. For each new Moon and full Moon, she wrote down the date of the largest tide in the days around it.
| Date of new or full Moon | Phase | Date of the largest tide |
|---|---|---|
| 6 January | New | 7 January |
| 21 January | Full | 22 January |
| 5 February | New | 5 February |
| 20 February | Full | 21 February |
| 6 March | New | 7 March |
| 21 March | Full | 22 March |
Source: made-up sample log.
3. What does Jo’s log show about when the biggest high water arrives? Roughly how long is it from one new Moon to the next full one?
4. Use Table 1 to predict the date of the next new Moon after 21 March, and the date of the largest tide near it. Show your working.
New Moon on about April
Largest tide on about April
5. Yolngu Cultural Knowledge and the written scientific account each arrived at the same pattern on their own. Explain how two such different ways of knowing could both find it.
6. Extended response. How is Yolngu Knowledge of the Moon and the tides alike, and unlike, the scientific account? Give one of each, then explain why both deserve to be trusted.
Compare the two accounts
1 per row, both cells. Passed on: story, song and Lore | written down. Link: the tides match the Moon’s position and phase | the Moon’s gravity pulls on the oceans. Built from: thousands of years of observation on Country | measured observations. Predict: when high and low tides come (both). [4 marks]
Fix the wording
1. (1) e.g. “The Yolngu People of north-east Arnhem Land hold Cultural Knowledge linking the Moon to the tides”: a named Nation, present tense (1). (2) Both are complementary ways of knowing built from careful observation, not myth versus fact (1). (3) Share only publicly shared knowledge; sacred knowledge is not ours to retell (1). [3 marks]
Question 2
Box 1: Sun, Earth and Moon are in a line, so both pull along it (1). Box 2: their pulls add, so the bulges are biggest: spring tides (1). [2 marks]
Read the data: Jo’s tide log
3. Largest tide on the day of each new or full Moon or the day after (1). About 15 days (1). [2 marks]
4. 21 March + about 15 days = new Moon about 5 April (accept 4–6) (1). Largest tide that day or the next, about 5–6 April (1). [2 marks]
Question 5
The link is real and repeats predictably (1), so anyone who watches the sky and sea carefully for a long time can notice it (1). [2 marks]
Question 6
Marking guide: 1 names the Yolngu People of north-east Arnhem Land and their Knowledge; 1 science: the Moon’s gravity, spring tides at new and full Moon; 1 similarity: both recognise a real, predictable link; 1 difference: story, song and Lore versus written down; 1 both reliable: long, careful, repeated observation; 1 complementary ways of knowing, not myth versus fact. [6 marks]
Model answer: The Yolngu People of north-east Arnhem Land hold Knowledge that the tides match the Moon’s position and phase. Science explains the tides by the Moon’s gravity, with spring tides at new and full Moon. Both recognise the same link; Yolngu Knowledge is passed on through story, song and Lore, science is written down. Both are reliable, built from long, careful observation: complementary ways of knowing.
Common error: framing the comparison as “myth versus fact”.