A boxed domino set from 1860, one of the historic toys highlighted in Little History
Image: Museum Victoria
Source: Museum Victoria
Media contact: Amanda Linardon alinardon@museum.vic.gov.au
A quest to design and build your own insect and a game that asks children to sort six historic toys from oldest to youngest are among online resources developed by Museum Victoria to assist teachers with the new Australian curriculum from the start of 2013.
"We are excited that the museum was selected to help support the national curriculum, which for the first time embeds History and Science into the earliest years of schooling," said Mirah Lambert, Manager of Discovery and Online Learning for Museum Victoria.
"This is a national recognition of how the museum's collections and expertise can play a leading role in helping teachers engage students with curriculum."
The "Little History" and Little Science" resources to be released in December will give teachers ideas and practical support in bringing History and Science into classrooms from Foundation (Prep) to Year 2 – subjects where generalist primary teachers often need support with specialist knowledge and resources.
Online resources packages "History Skills" for Year 9 and "Ancient Roman Empire" for Year 7 will also be released in December.
"A unique feature we've developed is a set of three teacher practice videos that guide educators through the available resources and provide case studies of how they might be used in the classroom, along with reflections on how they support best practice learning and teaching," Lambert commented.
"Teachers commonly extend classroom learning through excursions to our museum venues, but our research shows they are less aware of the museum's wealth of online resources. These new online resources are a natural extension of the idea that education extends beyond the classroom into the community and beyond textbooks into new technologies."
Museum Victoria Public Relations contact:
Amanda Linardon, 03 8341 7726, 0400 130 307 or alinardon@museum.vic.gov.au
For all general public enquiries, contact the museum's Discovery Centre