Utilising external educational resources- Lifelong Learning

Our annual Science Festival aims to excite the next generation about science and expose the students to what the museum has to offer.

With a diversity of information, resources and learning spaces the Australian Museum is a great educational resource for teachers, especially when celebrating Science Week. The Museum holds its annual Australian Museum Science Festival (AMSF) around National Science Week each year, with the 2014 festival seeing over 4, 000 students entering its doors over two weeks to participate in a selection of activities offered by a number of scientific and educational institutions.

This annual event provides a fantastic opportunity for students from K-12 to engage in hands on activities, talks and explosive workshops that explore a variety of scientific fields and cover a wide range of curriculum links. With around 200 presenters being involved last year, students had the chance to speak to scientists and presenters from leading institutions that provided activities designed to encourage them to appreciate, learn and understand the science they see every day with hands on experiments and lively demonstrations.

One of the aims of the festival is to excite the next generation about science and expose the students to what the museum has to offer and in doing so the presenters often engage even the most reluctant of students:
“The kids all got involved and had the chance to do things themselves. Even one kid who always tells me that he “hates science” had a ball. I noticed that he made himself a business card with his name and “future astronaut or engineer” on it.” – Primary School teacher, AMSF 2014.

Did you know?

The Lifelong Learning branch at the museum focuses on educating students from K-12 and offers a multitude of opportunities for teachers to utilize an outside educational resource when fulfilling curriculum links and syllabus outcomes.

With educator-led programs that easily supplement units of work and that are designed to address various key learning areas and curriculum topics the education staff deliver support for teachers looking to educate their students in various topics and exposes them to our permanent and temporary exhibitions.