Staff guide · The mountain-model visitor
Use only after the own attempt. These local criteria are examples of evidence, not an official grade or a unique required phrasing.
Complete selected source
Made-up story. At a pretend mountain exhibition, a visitor asks, “How could lake water reach the sea as rain?” The model card lists lake liquid → evaporation → invisible water vapour in air → condensation → cloud droplets → precipitation → ocean water. A second branch shows precipitation to land. No amount, travel time or weather forecast is supplied. The visitor needs a short explanation of the possible process, not a promised rain date. Choose a written, drawn, signed, spoken, dictated or typed response.
Q1
Prompt: Answer this visitor using the three process names.
Minimum meaningful evidence: Accurately explains evaporation/condensation/precipitation in the stated lake-to-ocean relation.
Worked example: Lake liquid can evaporate to vapour; condensation forms cloud droplets; precipitation can bring water to ocean.
Next teaching: Reteach one missing link using a new route.
Partial national link: AC9S4U02
Actual response / support / next appointment: ______
Q2
Prompt: What changes in the second branch?
Minimum meaningful evidence: Identifies land instead of ocean precipitation destination and possible multiple paths.
Worked example: Water falls to land in that branch, not ocean; the model can show more than one possible path.
Next teaching: Use a new two-destination example.
Partial national link: AC9S4I04
Actual response / support / next appointment: ______
Q3
Prompt: Who are you helping, and with what question?
Minimum meaningful evidence: Identifies the visitor and their lake-to-sea rain question.
Worked example: I am helping the visitor understand how lake water could reach the sea as rain.
Next teaching: Match a new explanatory message to its intended question/audience.
Partial national link: AC9S4H02
Actual response / support / next appointment: ______
Q4
Prompt: Give one useful limit.
Minimum meaningful evidence: Communicates no prediction/amount/travel-time limit relevant to the visitor.
Worked example: The model does not promise when rain happens or how much water travels that route.
Next teaching: Practise a short useful limit and keep unobserved inquiry conduct open.
Partial national link: AC9S4I06
Actual response / support / next appointment: ______
Use on Day 40 or later, after relevant teaching and exposure review. Preserve the earlier response and what was subsequently taught. New complete stories have familiar taught process/representation components; do not claim all-unseen answers, matched statistical difficulty or automatic improvement. Fiction/source reasoning does not establish actual measurement or conduct.
Modified from Year 4 Science alignment, standard elaborations and Years 3–4 techniques and conditions, © State of Queensland (QCAA) 2023, covered CC BY 4.0 with exceptions. Our task criteria are original; these are not official A–E bands. Actual folio and on-balance professional judgment remain necessary.