Year levels
Year 3 & 4 Science Incursions
Eight incursions for middle primary. Sessions at this band move from describing to explaining, with fair testing, measurement and prediction built into the activity rather than bolted on.
$490 + GST per program, flat. No per-student fees. Bookings have a 2-session minimum.
What Year 3 and Year 4 science looks like with us
The Victorian Curriculum 2.0 publishes Science content descriptions and achievement standards for Year 3 and Year 4 together, as the Levels 3 to 4 band. There is no separate Year 3 content and Year 4 content. Both years work toward the same end-of-band checkpoint, which is why one incursion suits either year, and why straight Year 3, straight Year 4 and combined 3/4 classes all work.
Students measure forces with a spring balance, test friction across surfaces and connect Newton's First and Third Laws to what they can feel, using reaction rockets, an inertia apparatus and a Newton's cradle. In Heat & Energy they compare insulators and conductors of heat and separate two ideas that get blurred in most classrooms: temperature is a measurement, heat is energy moving from one thing to another. In States of Matter they find everyday examples of change of state and handle substances that behave as both solid and liquid, such as semisolids and gels. In Natural & Processed Materials they link a material's properties to what it is used for, then weigh up the environmental and social cost of that choice.
The space session is model-based. Students turn a globe to show why day becomes night, walk the Moon around the Earth, and set out the relative positions of Earth, Moon and Sun that produce a solar or a lunar eclipse. They then run a ping-pong ball around a funnel to see orbital motion and the gravitational pull that keeps the Moon where it is.
Every program page below lists the specific content descriptions the session addresses, plus duration, group size and cost, so you can slot it into a unit you have already planned.
Curriculum coverage
The distinct Victorian Curriculum v2.0 content descriptions addressed across the programs on this page.
- VC2S4U10Measure forces using a spring balance and investigate how contact forces including friction and inertia affect the motion of objects
- VC2S4U09Identify different sources of heat energy including chemical, electrical and radiated heat from the sun
- VC2S4U05Classify materials by origin — animal, plant or mineral — and describe how processing changes their physical properties and possible uses
- VC2S4U04Classify solids, liquids and gases based on observable properties including shape, volume, viscosity and surface tension
- VC2S4U02Compare the life cycles of plants and animals including insects and amphibians, and explain how reproduction continues the life cycle
- VC2S4U01Explain how living things depend on each other and their environment — including for pollination and seed dispersal — to survive and reproduce
- VC2S4U06Investigate how mechanical and chemical weathering break down rocks, and how erosion by water moves weathered material across Earth's surface
- VC2S4U08Discuss how human activities including farming, mining and construction can accelerate weathering and erosion of Earth's surface
- VCDSCD029Apply an engineering design process to build towers and arch bridges, comparing how different shapes and reinforcement strategies affect structural performance
- VCDSCD028Select materials and joining techniques based on their physical properties and test how they affect strength and stability under load
- VCDSCD030Build and test a catapult, measure performance, and propose evidence-based improvements to the design
- VCDSCD031Evaluate each design against agreed criteria for success — tower height and stability, bridge span, launch distance — using the results of testing
8 programs in this group
Physical Sciences
Force & Motion
Students measure forces with a spring balance, test friction across surfaces, feel inertia first-hand, launch reaction rockets, and explore magnetism and static electricity.
Physical Sciences
Heat & Energy
Students investigate how heat moves by observing convection currents, comparing conduction through plastic and metal using an infrared thermometer, and testing how insulators slow heat transfer.
Chemical Sciences
Natural & Processed Materials
Students sort real specimens by origin, process gelatine into bioplastic, test elasticity and shape memory in nitinol wire, and examine absorbency under digital microscopes.
Chemical Sciences
States of Matter
Students identify mystery matter in sealed balloons, grow crystals, compare liquid viscosities, watch gallium melt at body temperature, and make their own polymer bouncy balls.
Biological Sciences
Life Cycles
Students compare the life cycles of plants, insects and amphibians, investigate pollination and seed dispersal, and observe live mealworms to track an insect life cycle in action.
Earth and Space Sciences
Earth, Moon & Sun
Students model day and night, the Moon's orbit and eclipses using globes and torches, investigate orbital motion hands-on with a funnel and ping-pong ball, and launch water rockets.
Earth and Space Sciences
Our Changing Earth
Students simulate mechanical and chemical weathering, model water erosion on a sugar cube landscape, build layered sedimentary rock from plasticine, and excavate fossil specimens as palaeontologists.
Design and Technologies
Building & Construction
Students build earthquake-resistant towers, design and test arch bridges, and construct a catapult, applying an engineering design process and refining their designs based on measured results.
Common questions
Can you work with mixed year levels?
Do you provide curriculum resources or lesson plans?
What's included in the cost?
How far in advance do we need to book?
Get a quote for Year 3 & 4 incursions
Tell us your year levels and the term you're planning for. We'll confirm availability and send a quote — no per-student fees, no surprises.
Limited dates each term — one facilitator, one school per day.