Year levels
Year 3 & 4 Science Incursions
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 session, 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.
- VC2S2U04Core
Objects are made of materials that have observable properties able to be described using the senses. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S2U05Core
Materials can be combined, and mixtures can have properties that are different from their original materials. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U04Core
Solids, liquids and gases have different observable properties, and adding or removing heat can cause a substance to change state. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U10Core
Contact forces and non-contact forces, including friction, gravity, magnetism and static electricity, can be exerted between objects and affect their motion. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4I03Core
Formal measurements, including the use of familiar scaled instruments, can be made and recorded to represent and compare data. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4I01Core
Observations can be used to pose questions and make predictions to guide an investigation. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U09Core
Heat can be produced in different ways, including chemical, electrical and radiated heat, and temperature change is related to heat transfer. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U05Core
Natural and processed materials have a range of physical properties that influence how they are used and re used. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE4C04Core
Explain how the properties of materials affect their use in designed solutions. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U02Core
Different living things have different life cycles, and offspring are similar to but not identical to their parents. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U06Core
Rocks, minerals and soils are natural resources with properties that determine how they can be used. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U01Core
Living, once-living, including fossils, and non-living things can be distinguished and classified. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE4C01Core
Explain how forces affect the function and performance of a product or system. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE4D04Core
Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions against criteria, including consideration of sustainability, to judge their suitability. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S2U11Related
Pushes and pulls can change the speed, direction or shape of an object, and vary in strength and direction. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S6U04Related
Changes to materials can be reversible, such as melting or freezing, or irreversible, such as burning, and new substances can be formed in a chemical change. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4H02Related
Science knowledge, and the processes used to develop it, are used to meet a need or to solve a problem that directly affects people's lives. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4U03Related
Living things can be classified as producers, consumers or decomposers, and these roles form food chains within a habitat. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S4H01Related
Data collected from students' own investigations can be used to explain natural phenomena and everyday observations. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2TDE4D03Related
Select and safely use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to make designed solutions. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S6U07Enrichment
Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting the Sun under the influence of gravity, and its rotation and tilt cause day length and the seasons to change. View on VCAA ↗
- VC2S6U05Enrichment
Rapid processes, including weathering and erosion, and slow processes acting over millions of years, change the surface of the Earth. View on VCAA ↗
9 programs in this group
Chemical Sciences
Christmas SciTech
Students grow a crystal Christmas tree, mould a bouncy snowball, unmask mystery liquids with a colour-change indicator, make instant snow, launch Santa's sleigh and build a snowball catapult to take home.
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 particle movement, 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, model the rock cycle, and excavate fossil specimens as palaeontologists.
Design and Technologies
Building & Construction
Students build earthquake-resistant towers, discover why arches beat flat spans, build and load-test their own pop-stick bridge, and compare two catapult designs before refining and testing their own.
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.