Educators bus tour: connecting schools and small museums

Educators Bus Tour:Attracting teachers (and schools) to local

museumsA presentation delivered at the Museums Australia National Conference May 17, 2013

Regional Remote & Community Museum Day

Janis Hanley B.Com, GCPAPrincipal Consultant, VisionDesign Pty Ltd

Janis Hanley ◆ Educators Bus Tour ◆ 2

About this presentation

• This presentation describes ‘The Educators Bus Tour’ - an innovative approach taken, on behalf of Gold Coast City Council, to consult heritage stakeholders.

• The consultation succeeded in bringing together teachers and local museums to collaborate on how local museums can meet the needs of the new national curriculum.

• The author makes no apologies for the gratuitous use of images of Gold Coast heritage throughout this presentation!

• This project was the conceived and implemented for Gold Coast City Council by Janis Hanley, Principal Consultant. VisionDesign Pty Ltd, a consultancy company specialising in Policy, Strategy and Heritage Programs

The Beginning

Heritage awareness is extra challenging on the Gold Coast.

Most people don’t relate heritage with the city and

consider ‘Gold Coast Heritage‘ an oxymoron. Even the

contemporary heritage is disappearing rapidly before being properly recognised. Some of Gold Coast’s early’s

high-rises are already scheduled for demolition - victims of concrete cancer

(highlighted in the inset photo)

The main photo shows 1970‘s Illuka - boarded up and on

building ‘death row’. The 88 story Q1 is in the background -

a haunting reminder of the changing face of land use in the

tourist cityPhoto © Janis Hanley 2013


Nov 2011: Planning the Stakeholder Consultation on Raising Awareness of Gold Coast’s Heritage

School education about local heritage seen as key

National History curriculum was kicking off in 2013

Wanted an an innovative way to engage teachers in the conversation

Many places on the recently established Local Heritage Register had important stories to tell of Gold Coast’s (and Australia’s) history

Local museums important part of the story - and needed capacity building.

Could the consultation itself be a catalyst for change?

Kinkabool, built in 1959 in the heart of Surfers Paradise, was the first

high-rise on the Gold Coast and is the first high-rise to be listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

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The Preparation

In the foreground is the old Cable station - built 1902 in Southport as Australia’s main communication link with the rest of the world. Touted as

‘red all the way’ back when red meant part of the British Empire. The only other

international cable line was Darwin, with then ‘suspect’

links on its path through non British countries.

The Nerang River and Surfers Paradise are in the background.

Cable station now houses the Music School for The Southport

School.

Photo © Janis Hanley 2012


Feb 2012: The National History Curriculum for museums workshop

To prepare the museums with knowledge of what’s in the National History Curriculum

One day free workshop for local museums

Hosted by a local school - The Southport School

The program included the following speakers:

Qld Museum Museum Development Officer

Teacher, Education Qld (formerly seconded to Qld Museum re the new history curriculum)

Librarian, The Southport School

Librarian from council’s Local Studies Library.

The Southport School’s archivist was also present and handled all the logistics / catering for the day

Each museum brought along a mystery object for the participants to test out their ‘Inquiry’ skills

The Southport School memorial

room - where the curriculum

workshop was held

The Southport School boarding house

The initial stage was getting the local museums up to speed with the new national history curriculum - the themes for each year levels, and the inquiry approaches to teaching. The 12 Gold Coast museums and historic associations were invited to a one day workshop. It was open

to all museum volunteers to attend.


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The Bus Tour


Organisation for the Educators Bus Tour

Scheduled the day for a student free day

Fliers sent to 160 schools on the Gold Coast

Emailed the principal

Sent two letters: The principal and co-ordinator of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE).

Made phone calls - got best success asking for the librarian.

Used in-house contacts and their networks (best results)

Teachers would earn 6 Professional Development hours for attending the bus tour

Scheduled in five museum visits + Local Studies Library (8.30 - 3.30)

Designed two surveys:

Individual survey to be completed at each museum

One overall survey

Gold Coast Hinterland Heritage Museum Inc. Excellent collection of artefacts from the timber getting and pioneering days, as

well as the original Nerang Railway Station built in the 1880s.

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32 teachers

32 teachers

registered

registered


The Educators Bus Tour Day

Literally started with a bang with flag raising ceremony and firing party. Over 150 kilometers were travelled during the day

Teachers generously filled out survey forms and gave feedback

Prizes along the way - guessing the ‘Mystery Object’ at each museum

Statement most often heard: ‘We had no idea these places were here’

Griffith Uni Education Lecturer: ‘Council should run this every year’

Flag raising and firing party, Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum Inc houses an excellent collection of Light Horse and

World War 1 artefacts, World War 2 maps and Objects of National Servicemen.


What the surveys told usBest activities to include for school excursions?

• The top three activities to include on school history excursions were:

Simulation /Historic Re-enactments

Museum visits

Archaeological digs

Additional ways for museums to engage

students:

•Online photo gallery

•Worksheets

•You-tube clips

•Interactive displays and role plays /

simulation

Other activities that rated highly were:

heritage walks and visits to natural history places,

the Local Studies Library

visits to Local Heritage Places.

Other suggestions were:

a cemetery walk,

indigenous history tour,

a four day excursions with different subjects

“Krarawarree” Former WW2 Hospital ship: Sited at the Gold Coast Restoration Society and being lovingly restored (with help from a year 9 student student

participating in a special program).



What the surveys told usBest ways to support teachers?

The three best ways to support teachers:

Excursion plans

School visits

Provide information sessions to teachers

The following ways were also suggested:

•information on ways to access resources

•a heritage bus (that visited schools)

•provision of lesson/unit plans and kits for schools

•Council appointment of an education officer

Surf World Gold Coast Inc. - Volunteer run museum open 7 days a week. Situated

opposite Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (A Qld National Trust Property)

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In terms of cost for a museum visit, $5 seemed the most acceptable, specially given the expense of transport.

The common range for a whole day excursion was $20-$25 (including $10 for bus)

The following rated highly for activities that Council could organise for students:

Heritage week/month activities

School visits talks

Virtual reality presentations

Public archaeological digs

Other: Demonstrations, Picnic in a museum grounds and school archaeological digs

What the surveys told usExcursion Logistics

Council Archaeological dig at site of a Sugar Mill

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Most surveyed (80%) thought that a Gold Coast History network would be a good idea.

an online forum /wiki that enabled upload for sharing resources. This could be coupled with a meeting once a term at one of the museums.

Other networks that teachers use are: the History Teachers Association and GEO NET for secondary geography teachers on the Gold Coast.

Limited interest in some sort of “Time travelers” club for students exploring Gold Coast geological and cultural history. An e-newsletter and website would be the best format.

Teachers sources for resources include:

Local Studies Library, GCCC Website, Aust. History Teachers Assoc., Gould Genealogy, museum sites, online, flyers delivered to school, ACARA site and Scootle, QSA Alliance, other staff, Learning Place (Ed Qld Portal) and local museum websites.

What the surveys told usLearning Networks

Six of the teachers who

attended were interested in

volunteering to assist in

further work on local history

education and 8 were

maybes.

Gold Coast & Hinterland Historical Society Inc. Eclectic collection includes Paula Stafford Bikinis,

Communications equipment from Cable Hut, Saw mill plant, Indigenous

artefacts



Data was collected at each museum on how well the collection relates to the curriculum themes for each year level

Survey collected suggestions for excursion activities specific to each museums

A report was given to each museum detailing comments made

What the surveys told usIndividual Museums

Graph is indicative of the type of data collected


• Overall the message is to engage the students through hands-on activities where they can directly experience things for themselves. Ideas included:

Re-enactments & demonstrations:

Hands on activities like: washing clothes, writing with pen and ink, tent pegging, working with tools, trying on uniforms & weapons

DVD of differences past and present, particularly things that cant be done on site

Personalised stories

Fictionalised narratives to show a day/week/year of life

Treasure hunts, quiz, activity sheet

Focused activities where students report back to each other.

Museum guides/audio when not enough volunteers

Student museum membership

What the surveys told usSmall Museum Curriculum Potential - A Summary

Use of historic photos as a clever piece of ‘way finding’

design along the Surfers Paradise foreshore. These

towers mark the streets and are colour coded so visitors to the beach can easily see which is

‘their’ street.



• Finally, some of the comments from the day:

• ‘The tour was great: a brief 'taste' of what is available to enhance local history curricular Inquiries. So much to follow-up, to create activities for students to do whilst at the various museums - I'm already planning! ‘

• ‘We need to keep the momentum going and expand our awareness - and inform our staff members to take full advantage of the opportunities offered here’

What the surveys told usQuotes

Not bad from a starting point of ‘we had no idea these places were here’!


What’s happened since?

Council did not continue this work further.

Museums started to pick up the ball - with limited resources.

All Saints Anglican College was approached by the author to run some pilot excursion programs with local museums.

Janis worked with the museums and the schools to develop excursion days for the museum that would align with the history curriculum.

Funding was successfully applied for through the Regional Arts Development Fund.

Larger than life sculpture in the Broadwater Parklands at

Southport. It is a popular place for tourists to snap photos - Tourism

heritage?


The First Museum Excursion Programs- some snapshots


Mar 2013: Mudgeeraba - Year 2 - The Past In the Present‘William Duncan and the Timber Getting Story’

• Excursion Plan Included:

Visit to the Mudgeeraba Hinterland Heritage Museum - focusing on life and times of William Duncan and the timber story ... and Hot damper!)

Visit to Mudgeeraba Village

Welcome by the Councillor

Looking at photo kits at the Mudgeeraba Library (Former Council Chamber built in 1914)

Treasure hunt through Mudgeeraba village

Pre and post excursion resources for the school including:

William Duncan narrative

Timeline of Mudgeeraba history

Powerpoint of the historic buildings of Mudgeeraba

Students on the treasure Students on the treasure hunthunt


Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum - Year 3 - ‘Commemorations’

• Visit to the Light Horse Museum Included:

“Where’s Woody’ a search for symbols of the ANZACs”

Hands on Group Activities

How to raise the flag

Care of a war horse

World War 1 Weapons

Honouring War heroes with poppies

Flag raising ceremony with firing party

Horseback tent pegging demonstration

• Pre and post excursion resources for the school including:

Woody the Waler narrative

Light Horse hero e-book

The Cook’s Story

Symbols of the Light Horse ANZACS e-book


Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum - Year 3 - ‘Commemorations’


Recognition

National Trust Qld Governor’s Silver Award 2012: ‘Educators Bus Tour’ to Gold Coast City Council and VisionDesign Pty Ltd

Media Coverage of Light Horse Museum Pilot - two key elements:

Karen Andrews MP press release (She attended the pilot run)

It was a week before ANZAC Day

Coverage included:

Channel nine local news

Channel nine Today show Saturday (nationally)

Cover of the Sun Newspaper

Two page spread Gold Coast Bulletin Newspaper

Recognition is always helpful. The Educators Bus Tour itself was recognised by Queensland’s

National Trust, then there was excellent media coverage of the first pilot program - that’s good for

everyone!


Gold Coast Bulletin Education Section Tuesday 23rd April 2013

The Mudgeeraba Light Horse Museum inc. was very grateful for the

coverage given by local media.


And this is just the start of this work ....More projects are in the pipeline.Thank-you for listening/reading

• Further information:

web: http://visiond.com.au/australianhistory

• Janis’s contact details:

email: [email protected]

twitter: @just2write

Educators bus tour: connecting schools and small museums

Education

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