Stage 4 - The Rocks Site Study
The Rocks Site Study: Exploring Aboriginal heritage, colonisation, and population movements through hands-on historical inquiry for Stage 4 students.
About this excursion
The Rocks Site Study is a Stage 4 History program focusing on Aboriginal and Indigenous Peoples, colonisation, and population movements. Through inquiry-based exploration of historically significant locations, students develop historical knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes by engaging directly with their historical environment.
This hands-on study helps students interpret the past, understand changes in human occupation, and appreciate the historical context of these developments. It aims to deepen historical understanding and foster a lifelong interest in history.
Student previsit and follow-up activities
Successful excursions have direct links to current classroom learning. Pre-visit activities carried out prior to the excursion will help students better understand the excursion content and provide a sense of connectedness and relevance to classroom learning.
Have students visit the Student Support Website provided during booking and complete any pre-fieldwork activities to familiarise themselves with the study area.
Activities on the day
- Recap on prior learning about the study sites, and learn how to construct a field journal on iPads
- Use iPads to complete a historical enquiry, and create a digital field journal, about significant people and locations relevant to the topic
- Visit the Rocks Discovery Museum to learn about local indigenous people, colonisation and contact history
- Visit archaeological sites and view artefacts in The Rocks, Millers Point, and Dawes Point to investigate the lives of Gadigal Aboriginal people, convicts, and free settlers, and their impact on the development of the Australian Nation.
Important information
The Rocks and Millers Point.
View the Google Map with an approximate walking route, meeting location, and pickup location.
Key syllabus Outcomes
- selects and analyses a range of historical sources to locate information relevant to an historical inquiry
- describes key aspects of contact between indigenous people and colonisers
- describes and assesses the life of one Aboriginal individual in contact with the British colonisers
- uses a variety of sources to investigate and report on the changing way of life of a convict, emancipists or free settler.
- Integrating the ‘Sustainability’ Cross Curriculum Priority is a feature of the program.
Skills outcomes
- develop skills to undertake the process of historical inquiry using an inquiry-based examination of historically significant locations and people
- develop ICT skills
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