Years 7 to 10
Helping young people to be smart consumers
The Buy Smart Program has been developed to align with the Australian Curriculum for seamless implementation in the classroom.
Please note: All curriculum links and mapping relate to version 8 of the Australian Curriculum. Check back for version 9 later in the year.
Teachers can set a specific topic or set a Buy Smart Competition project to fit a learning outcome. You can also use the competition task to assess your students' achievement standards.
Australian Curriculum mapping for our Buy Smart resources is available on the national Consumer Law website.
Buy Smart Online
We also provide ready-made resources to support online learning and remote delivery. These include video presentations based on existing incursion topics for secondary students.
Videos suitable for Years 7 to 10 are available on the below playlists:
Curriculum links
Jump to learning areas:
Mathematics
Buy Smart is ideal for teaching the numbers and algebra strand of the mathematics learning area. It aligns strongly with the money and financial mathematics content within this strand, and can also be used to support other aspects of mathematics, such as data representation and interpretation.
Year 7
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACMNA174 | Investigate and calculate 'best buys', with and without digital technologies. |
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| ACMNP169 | Identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources. |
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| ACMSP171 | Calculate mean, median, mode and range for sets of data. Interpret these statistics in the context of data. |
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Year 8
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACMNA187 | Solve problems involving the use of percentages, including percentage increases and decreases, with and without digital technologies. |
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| ACMNA189 | Solve problems involving profit and loss, with and without digital technologies. |
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English
Buy Smart can help teachers delivering the English learning area in primary and middle school years. In particular, it can provide a framework for getting students to create texts across a range of media, while also supporting other learning outcomes within the strands of language and literacy.
Year 7
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACELY1721 | Analyse and explain the ways text structures and language features shape meaning and vary according to audience and purpose. |
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| ACELY1723 | Use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources. |
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| ACELY1724 | Compare the text structures and language features of multimodal texts, explaining how they combine to influence audiences. |
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| ACELY1725 | Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas. |
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| ACELY1728 | Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts. |
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Year 8
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACELA1542 | Understand how rhetorical devices are used to persuade and how different layers of meaning are developed through the use of metaphor, irony and parody. |
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| ACELA1543 | Analyse how the text structures and language features of persuasive texts, including media texts, vary according to the medium and mode of communication. |
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| ACELA1548 | Investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning. |
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| ACELY1731 | Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content, including multimodal elements, to reflect a diversity of viewpoints. |
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| ACELY1736 | Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate. |
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| ACELY1738 | Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively. |
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Year 9
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACELA1552 | Investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, for example, allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor. |
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| ACELA1560 | Analyse and explain the use of symbols, icons and myth in still and moving images and how these augment meaning. |
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| ACELY1740 | Listen to spoken texts constructed for different purposes (e.g. to entertain and to persuade) and analyse how language features of these texts position listeners to respond in particular ways. |
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| ACELY1741 | Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for aesthetic and playful purposes. |
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| ACELY1745 | Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts. |
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| ACELY1746 | Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features. |
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| ACELY1748 | Use a range of software, including word processing programs, flexibly and imaginatively to publish texts. |
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Year 10
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACELA1567 | Understand how paragraphs and images can be arranged for different purposes, audiences, perspectives and stylistic effects. |
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| ACELA1572 | Evaluate the impact on audiences of different choices in the representation of still and moving images. |
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| ACELY1751 | Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements to influence a course of action. |
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| ACELY1752 | Identify and analyse implicit or explicit values, beliefs and assumptions in texts and how these are influenced by purposes and likely audiences. |
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| ACELY1754 | Use comprehension strategies to compare and contrast information within and between texts, identifying and analysing embedded perspectives, and evaluating supporting evidence. |
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| ACELY1756 | Create sustained texts, including texts that combine specific digital or media content, for imaginative, informative, or persuasive purposes that reflect upon challenging and complex issues. |
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| ACELY1776 | Use a range of software, including word processing programs, confidently, flexibly and imaginatively to create, edit and publish texts, considering the identified purpose and the characteristics of the user. |
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Business and economics
The Buy Smart Competition sets a project that teachers can use for teaching and assessing the core content in the business and economics stream. The project also provides a framework that satisfies the requirement for students to plan and conduct investigations and communicate their findings.
Year 7
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACHEK017 | The ways consumers and producers interact and respond to each other in the market. |
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| ACHEK018 | Why and how individuals and businesses plan to achieve short-term and long-term personal, organisational and financial objectives. |
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| ACHES021 | Develop questions about an economic or business issue or event, and plan and conduct an investigation or project. |
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| ACHES025 | Apply economics and business knowledge, skills and concepts in familiar and new situations. |
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| ACHES026 | Present evidence-based conclusions using economics and business language and concepts in a range of appropriate formats and reflect on the consequences of alternative actions. |
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Year 8
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACHEK027 | The ways markets in Australia operate to enable the distribution of resources, and why they may be influenced by government. |
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| ACHEK029 | The rights and responsibilities of consumers and businesses in Australia in terms of financial and economic decision-making. |
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| ACHES032 | Develop questions about an economic or business issue or event, and plan and conduct an investigation or project. |
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| ACHES033 | Gather relevant data and information from a range of digital, online and print sources. |
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| ACHEK036 | Apply economics and business knowledge, skills and concepts in familiar and new situations. |
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| ACHES037 | Present evidence-based conclusions using economics and business language and concepts in a range of appropriate formats and reflect on the consequences of alternative actions. |
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Year 9
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACHEK040 | Why and how people manage financial risks and rewards in the current Australian and global financial landscape. |
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| ACHES043 | Develop questions and hypotheses about an economic or business issue or event, and plan and conduct an investigation. |
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| ACHES044 | Gather relevant and reliable data and information from a range of digital, online and print sources. |
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| ACHES045 | Analyse data and information in different formats to explain cause-and-effect relationships, make predictions and illustrate alternative perspectives. |
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| ACHEK047 | Apply economics and business knowledge, skills and concepts in familiar, new and hypothetical situations. |
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| ACHES048 | Present reasoned arguments and evidence-based conclusions in a range of appropriate formats using economics and business conventions, language and concepts. |
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ACHES049 | Reflect on the intended and unintended consequences of economic and business decisions. |
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Year 10
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACHEK053 | Factors that influence major consumer and financial decisions and the short-term and long-term consequences of these decisions. |
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| ACHES055 | Develop questions and hypotheses about an economic or business issue or event, and plan and conduct an investigation. |
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| ACHES056 | Gather relevant and reliable data and information from a range of digital, online and print sources. |
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| ACHES058 | Develop questions and hypotheses about an economic or business issue or event, and plan and conduct an investigation. |
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| ACHEK059 | Apply economics and business knowledge, skills and concepts in familiar, new and hypothetical situations. |
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| ACHES060 | Present reasoned arguments and evidence-based conclusions in a range of appropriate formats using economics and business conventions, language and concepts. |
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ACHES061 | Reflect on the intended and unintended consequences of economic and business decisions. |
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Digital technologies
Teachers can apply Buy Smart as a project for students in the digital technologies stream. Projects can use any platform or system, but you should consider whether specialised technology is needed for access.
Topics of online safety—such as avoiding scams and protecting personal information—fall within the scope of the competition.
Years 7 to 8
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACTDIP025 | Acquire data from a range of sources and evaluate authenticity, accuracy and timeliness. |
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| ACTDIP028 | Design the user experience of a digital system, generating, evaluating and communicating alternative designs. |
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| ACTDIP030 | Implement and modify programs with user interfaces involving branching, iteration and functions in a general-purpose programming language. |
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| ACTDIP032 | Plan and manage projects that create and communicate ideas and information collaboratively online, taking safety and social contexts into account. |
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Years 9 to 10
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACTDIP034 | Develop techniques for acquiring, storing and validating quantitative and qualitative data from a range of sources, considering privacy and security requirements. |
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| ACTDIP039 | Design the user experience of a digital system by evaluating alternative designs against criteria, including functionality, accessibility, usability and aesthetics. |
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| ACTDIP043 | Create interactive solutions for sharing ideas and information online, taking into account safety, social contexts and legal responsibilities. |
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| ACTDIP044 | Plan and manage projects using an iterative and collaborative approach, identifying risks and considering safety and sustainability. |
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Media arts
The Buy Smart Competition can provide the framework for students to create projects across a range of formats in the media arts stream.
Some media artwork analysis—for instance, persuasive techniques used by media advertising—may fall within the subject scope of the competition.
Years 7 to 8
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACAMAM066 | Experiment with the organisation of ideas to structure stories through media conventions and genres to create points of view in images, sounds and text. |
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| ACAMAM067 | Develop media representations to show familiar or shared social and cultural values and beliefs, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. |
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| ACAMAM068 | Develop and refine media production skills to shape the technical and symbolic elements of images, sounds and text for a specific purpose and meaning. |
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| ACAMAM069 | Plan, structure and design media artworks that engage audiences. |
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| ACAMAM070 | Present media artworks for different community and institutional contexts with consideration of ethical and regulatory issues. |
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| ACAMAR071 | Analyse how technical and symbolic elements are used in media artworks to create representations influenced by story, genre, values and points of view of particular audiences. |
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Years 9 to 10
| AC code | Content description | Entry topic ideas |
|---|---|---|
| ACAMAM075 | Develop and refine media production skills to integrate and shape the technical and symbolic elements in images, sounds and text for a specific purpose, meaning and style. |
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| ACAMAM076 | Plan and design media artworks for a range of purposes that challenge the expectations of specific audiences by particular use of production processes. |
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| ACAMAM078 | Evaluate how technical and symbolic elements are manipulated in media artworks to create and challenge representations framed by media conventions, social beliefs and values for a range of audiences. |
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