Product Overview
Please note: This study guide contains two versions – a full-colour guide and a text-only version for printing and referencing.
Have you ever thought about taking a DNA test? What if you gathered all your friends and all your neighbors, and took one together? What would you find? Maybe you have unknown royal ancestors or you’re not the ethnicity you think you are. Or maybe, that person next door, who you’ve known for years, is actually your cousin.
In this first-of-its-kind television series, four neighbourhoods are being offered mass DNA tests that will unveil wild hidden chapters of Australia’s history. Host Marc Fennell, along with journalist Rae Johnston and ancestry expert Brad Argent, use DNA to identify surprising common ancestors, unknown ethnicities and solve family mysteries. The results reveal these neighbourhoods as never before. Ordinary towns, with extraordinary discoveries that reveal who we are as a nation. This is The Secret DNA of Us.
Curriculum Links:
The Secret DNA of Us would be suitable for students in the following learning areas:
- Health and Physical Education (Years 7-10)
- HASS (History) (Years 6, 9 and 10)
- Media Arts (Years 7-10)
- Modern History (Years 11-12)
The series also has relevance to the General Capabilities of:
- Literacy
- Critical and Creative Thinking
- Personal and Social Capability
- Ethical Understanding
- Intercultural Understanding
In addition to the Cross-curriculum Priorities:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
- Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia
Key themes:
- DNA testing
- Family history/ancestry
- Personal, familial, cultural and community identity
- First Nation experiences and identity (pre- and post-settlement)
- Early colonial settlement
- Convict history
- Industry in Australia
- Migration waves and push-pull factors
- World War II and post-war migration, culture and community
