Australian National maritime museum launches new content for remote school learning

Australian National Maritime Museum

The Australian National Maritime Museum has boosted its online school educational resources, in time for term two of the school year.

A new range of creative activities, games, and learning programs, aligned with the school curriculum, have been added to the museum’s website at https://www.sea.museum/learn

The museum’s Head of Learning, Peter Tattersall, said additional resources would support parents and teachers with remote learning.

“We’ve seen a gradual shift away from traditional classroom learning practice in Australian schools over the past few years, but that trajectory has been completely disrupted and intensified by the events of the past few months, he said.

“Our goal has been to build and share resources that make learning not just challenging and fun, but also accessible from a range of places, be they classrooms, bedrooms, couches or dinner tables.”

The museum’s program gives students of all ages engaging ways to learn about Australian history, cultural life and science through our stories of the sea.

New educational resources include Cook’s Voyage, an online game developed to engage students with this year’s 250th Anniversary of Cook’s visit to the east coast of Australia. www.sea.museum/cooks-voyage

The landmark game is designed to give students an understanding of the ongoing importance of Cook’s arrival to Australia, and the lasting impacts this has had, particularly on Australia’s First People.

A new suite of resources has been designed to support teachers and guide students toward a deeper understanding of Cook’s 1770 voyage. The resources are intended for all Australian teachers and students with the goal of reaching lasting benefit and increased knowledge of our shared Australian history.

When engaging with Endeavour’s east coast voyage, students and teachers will be able to learn the truth of our nation’s history from dual perspectives – with an emphasis on the ‘view from the shore’ completing and balancing the ‘view from the ship’. It also provides a platform to discuss the many other encounters that have occurred around the continent over time.

The content is linked to the Australian Curriculum and Australian Professional Teaching Standards. The resources can be found at https://www.sea.museum/learn/school-excursions/teacher-resources/encounters-2020

Digital resources and case studies in the museum’s key themes of migration and maritime archaeology would be made available online over the coming months.

Younger children could learn to walk, talk or sing like a Pirate with the museum’s resident Pirate Captain, Grognose Johnny, in a light-hearted Pirates Academy video. https://www.sea.museum/pirate-school

Peter Tattersall said that the museum had focused on producing high quality online resources, with a particular emphasis on fun, gamified learning experiences.

The Voyage a game based on real convict voyages, a virtual tour on the Endeavour and an education collaboration with the ABC HMB’s Endeavour’s Voyage of Explorations had proven popular with students and teachers in recent years.

The museum had seen a threefold increase in the number of students participating in the museum’s online learning programs from 65,000 in 2017 to well over 200,000 this year.

“We’ve found that ‘learning through stealth’ can be particularly effective and the feedback we’ve had from teachers suggest that these resources have been useful.

“We certainly expect to see an upswing in user numbers and hope the new resources coming online will continue to draw students into learning headspaces, irrespective of where they are,” he said.

/Public Release.