Four Historical Investigation Missions

Mission 1 — Read the site

Explore the Commemorative Area and Hall of Memory. Annotate a screenshot or sketch with observations about layout, symbols, materials and names. Ask: How does the design encourage visitors to remember?

 

 

 

 

Mission 2 — Artefact Detective

Select an object, photograph, artwork or document. Investigate its creator, date, context, purpose, audience, evidence and limitations. Identify another source that could corroborate or challenge your interpretation.

 

 

Mission 3 — Whose story?

Compare personal stories represented in the collection, including different roles and experiences. Where appropriate and culturally safe, include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wartime service using Memorial educational resources and required protocols.

Person- group / EvidenceExperience-perspective/ What is similar or different?

Source A

Source B

Source C

Critical question: If we investigated only one person's story, what might be missing from our understanding?

 

 

Mission 4 — Why remember?

Investigate commemorative practices and symbols, such as the Roll of Honour and poppy. Then ask: Could a memorial itself be a historical source? What might this site tell a historian 100 years from now about how Australians in our time remembered the past?

 

Curate your own digital exhibition

Students take on the role of curators, developing a mini digital exhibition called Stories of Service and Remembrance. This final assessment challenges them to make informed decisions rather than merely presenting facts.

Include

  • 3–4 historical sources
  • accurate source captions
  • at least two perspectives
  • a commemorative feature or symbol
  • discipline vocabulary
  • a conclusion answering the inquiry question

For every source

  • What does it show?
  • Why did you select it?
  • What does it contribute to your narrative?
  • What are its limitations?
  • What other evidence supports your interpretation?

Choice of format

Digital exhibition • narrated slides • interactive poster • museum guide • accessible multimedia presentation.

Different modes, same rigorous success criteria.

Exit assessment: Claim • Evidence • Reasoning

Claim: The Australian War Memorial is significant for understanding Australia's past because…
Evidence: Select 2–3 sources from the investigation.
Reasoning: Explain precisely how the evidence supports the claim.

Reflection: “Before investigating the Memorial, I thought ______. Now, based on the evidence, I think ______ because ______.”

Teacher guide: pedagogy, differentiation and assessment

Why this approach?
The sequence combines explicit teaching of contextual knowledge and vocabulary with guided historical inquiry. Students progressively move from supported observation to independent source interrogation and evidence-based interpretation. Visible-thinking routines make reasoning observable, while dialogic discussion allows interpretations to be tested against evidence and peers' ideas.

Inquiry sequence:
Question → Observe → Analyse → Compare → Corroborate → Interpret → Create → Reflect

ICT is used authentically: it provides access to a nationally significant site, digitised collections and virtual galleries that students may not otherwise be able to visit. The technology is a means of conducting historical inquiry, not an add-on.

Differentiation by access, process and product

Learner need Planned support / extension Maintained intellectual demand
Students requiring support Visual vocabulary, chunked tour segments, teacher-selected sources, partially completed organisers, audio/text alternatives, sentence starters. Students continue to engage in interpretations based on evidence rather than merely carrying out a straightforward recall task.
EAL/D Introduce vocabulary in advance, utilize visuals, engage in collaborative practice, provide bilingual resources when suitable, and use frameworks like "This source suggests ___ because ___." Explicit language scaffolds enable participation in the same historical reasoning.
Students with disability Accessible digital materials, captions/transcripts, assistive technology, reduced visual load, flexible response modes and additional processing time as required. Assessment focuses on historical understanding rather than a single mode of communication.
Extension Compare conflicting evidence, identify silences/omissions, independently locate corroborating sources, critique curatorial choices. Students evaluate how historical narratives are constructed and contested.

Assessment for, as and of learning

For learning

See–Think–Wonder, vocabulary checks, questioning and field notes identify prior knowledge and misconceptions

 

As learning

Peer dialogue, source-analysis checks and reflection prompts help students monitor the quality of their evidence and reasoning.

 

Of learning

The curated exhibition and Claim–Evidence–Reasoning response demonstrate source analysis, perspectives and historical interpretation.

 

Critical teacher reflection questions

 

  • Whose voices are visible in the sources we selected, and whose may be less visible?
  • Are students clearly distinguishing primary evidence from assumption?
  • Are multiple perspectives explored without implying every source is equally reliable for every question?
  • Does each digital tool deepen historical inquiry, or is it merely decorative?
  • Can students substantiate their interpretation with corroborated evidence?