Tag: Australian-Curriculum

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultures, Education

Message Sticks: rich ways of weaving Aboriginal cultures into the Australian Curriculum

Written by: Nerinda Sandry, Strategic Learning In terms of classroom learning and the Australian Curriculum, the exploration of message sticks brings together history, science, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, literacy and art. Coupled with a trip to a museum and contact with a local Aboriginal Group where possible, the links to both Historical Knowledge and Understanding and Historical skills for Foundation to … Continue reading Message Sticks: rich ways of weaving Aboriginal cultures into the Australian Curriculum

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Education, Marine Environments

New Resources to Support Sustainability Education

Written by: Marcel Bruyn, Strategic Learning Sustainability is a cross-curriculum priority of the Australian Curriculum. Sustainability addresses the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life. The AC website states that: “Education for sustainability develops the knowledge, skills, values and world views necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to more sustainable patterns of living.” In Science: “… students appreciate that science provides the … Continue reading New Resources to Support Sustainability Education

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Education

Reduce Reuse and Rethink: New QM Resource

                                                        Recycling and the Australian Curriculum Teaching is characteristically a time poor occupation and no more so than in the modern classroom. In our efforts to deliver the entire curriculum (in a perfect classroom with well-behaved children who attend school nearly every day!), we need to be clever about maximising the potential of learning in each lesson. Specifically, we need to reduce the need for … Continue reading Reduce Reuse and Rethink: New QM Resource

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Education, Insects & Spiders, Mammals & Birds, Reptiles & Amphibians

It’s Taxon Time

Written by: Maryanne Venables, Strategic Learning The “Zoo Animals” went into the tin with the blue lid, while my “Farm Animals” went in the tin with the green lid. The animal kingdom, as I knew it, lived under my bed in Streets ice-cream tins. All were classified, according to contexts developed from the songs, books and experiences of a four-year old. Fast forward to 2012 and, … Continue reading It’s Taxon Time

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Education

Teaching kids to be scientifically discriminative

It’s the school holidays in Queensland and the seconded teachers at QM are taking a well-earned break. This provides me with an opportunity to pen a few words whilst our teaching experts are away! Science has been at the forefront of local news lately, particularly in relation to conservation issues. The Courier Mail had a headline Reef at Risk blazed across the front page on … Continue reading Teaching kids to be scientifically discriminative

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Archaeology, Collection Management, Education

New Ways of Looking at Old Treasures

The recent opening of Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb exhibition prompted delight on the faces of QM staff and the visiting public.  In addition to supervising the opening of the exhibition, British Museum expert Dr John Taylor identified a very significant old treasure. The piece of papyrus laying quietly in the display of QM artefacts has now been identified as part of an important Book of the Dead belonging … Continue reading New Ways of Looking at Old Treasures

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Education, Insects & Spiders

Incredible Insects: From the desk of Quentin the Quoll

To teach the Biological Sciences sub strand of the Australian Curriculum well, teachers need to feel fairly comfortable with living things. Of particular benefit is knowledge of insects, firstly because they are invertebrates and therefore don’t require the enormous screeds of paperwork for approval to use them.  Secondly, insects are just simply amazing and frankly, without them, we’d all be dead! Insects of course are one of the … Continue reading Incredible Insects: From the desk of Quentin the Quoll

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Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultures, Education

Aboriginal Science Tools: the Morah Stone

Greetings from the Museum of Tropical Queensland (MTQ). My name is Letitia Murgha and I am a member of the Strategic Learning team which is comprised of four seconded teachers from Education Queensland. We do lots of things across the museum network as you will have read in previous blogs.  As an indigenous elder and experienced teacher, my main role is to work alongside Trish Barnard (Senior … Continue reading Aboriginal Science Tools: the Morah Stone

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Education

Sustainability Focus in new Australian Curricula

Sustainability is one of the three cross-curriculum priorities in the new Australian curricula. This topic can be incorporated quite easily into teaching units for the new Science, History, and English curricula that are to be implemented in 2012. As stated in the Australian curriculum, ‘sustainability addresses the ongoing capacity of the Earth to maintain all life,’ and ‘Sustainable patterns of living meet the needs of … Continue reading Sustainability Focus in new Australian Curricula

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Education

New Primary Science Loans Kits Trialled in the Classroom

Saturday 13th August is the start of National Science Week. So for this week’s post I thought I would share with you some interesting science activities occurring at two central Brisbane schools this term. Over the last few weeks I have visited Year 5 at Milton State School and Year 1 at Newmarket SS. I have enjoyed assisting with classroom science teaching. Gil Sauvage, a science teacher specialist at Milton, and … Continue reading New Primary Science Loans Kits Trialled in the Classroom

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Education, Reptiles & Amphibians

Rock Refugia

Patrick Couper is Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians at Queensland Museum and has an active interest in the taxonomy, ecology and conservation of Queensland’s diverse reptile fauna. A major focus of Patrick’s research has been the discovery and description of leaf-tailed geckos that live in the rainforests of eastern Australia. Leaf-tails, which have a long rainforest ancestry, often have strong associations with rocky outcrops. Rocky … Continue reading Rock Refugia

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Education, Insects & Spiders

Fantastic Phasmids

The term ‘phasmids’ (pronounced fas-mids), is just another name for the group of insects we commonly call stick insects. These amazing creatures are so well-camouflaged that they are very difficult to see amongst foliage. The Goliath Stick insect (Eurycnema goliath) is one of Australia’s largest phasmids. It is green with yellow patches on the head, thorax and legs. As well as its wonderful camouflage, these … Continue reading Fantastic Phasmids

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Education

Museum Learning Resources and the Australian Science Curriculum

Over recent years, teachers-in-residence at the Queensland Museum have developed many learning resources for teachers and students. The latest support materials have been developed to help with the implementation of the new Australian Science Curriculum. A list of these resources is provided in the PDF document below. Summaries of QM online resources that complement QM Loans kits can be found on the catalogue page of … Continue reading Museum Learning Resources and the Australian Science Curriculum

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