News Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Virtual Excursions Australia

March 16, 2020March 19, 2020

Virtual Excursions with Fizzics Education

Multi-award-winning virtual programs by Fizzics Education are available to all students to keep up student enthusiasm & enrichment in these unprecedented times. These virtual excursions are available to your school now, no matter your location across Australia and the world.

Liquid Nitrogen Video Conference

Fizzics Education has been running live virtual classes with students since 2011. Their programs are highly interactive distance lessons by highly experienced distance educators including:

Direct curriculum links
Live classes; students can question & answer our educators and participate in experiments using household materials
Pre, during and post virtual excursion lesson notes for both teachers and students.
A list of inexpensive materials that students can have on-hand during the lesson.
Option to use Flipgrid to help students discuss the content further
Simple connection, one click and you’re in!
All supported by over 150 FREE experiments, student podcasts and more

We know that this may not be part of your scope and sequence yet, however these virtual excursions are a direct solution for keeping students focused and connected with the online content that you are preparing.

Contact Fizzics Education now to find out more and secure your booking!

September 6, 2016September 6, 2016

Virtual Endeavour Project Officer

Looking for work at the Australian National Maritime Museum? Check out this amazing oppurtunity – Virtual Endeavour Project Officer.

Project Officer – Virtual Endeavour

“One APS Career…Thousands of Opportunities”

The Australian National Maritime Museum has a skilled and diverse workforce. We value our people, performance, integrity and service. We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with a disability and people from every cultural and linguistic background.

T242 Project Officer – Virtual Endeavour

Non-ongoing Fulltime (2 years)

Purpose of this Position:

Implement the Virtual Endeavour STEM excursions project funded by the Catalyst program (Department of Communication and the Arts). Specifically to conduct virtual school excursions to the HMB Endeavour and develop further Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) resource material and programs. Market and promote the program. Manage two teacher academies during the life of the program. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the program in conjunction with Head of Learning / Data61 (CSIRO). Be an active participant in other museum programs where required.

This is non-ongoing fulltime position for period of 24 months. Applications Close: 11:30 pm AEDT, 11 September 2016

Contact Officer: Lynda Kelly, Head of Learning, Learning, Public Engagement and Research Division, Australian National Maritime Museum on (02) 9298 3745.

Selection for this position will be made on the basis of relative merit which will be assessed against each item of the selection criteria. Applications that do not address the selection criteria will not be considered for short listing by the Selection Committee. As part of the selection process the selection committee may invite candidates to undertake psychometric test, you should advise the selection committee if you have any special needs. Psychometric tests may be used as the initial short-listing test or later in the selection process. Some tests are very short while others may take one or more hours.

Notes

This position is open to all eligible members of the community. To be an eligible member of the community you must be an Australian citizen. Applications may be accepted from Australian permanent residents who are in the process of acquiring Australian citizenship.

Full position details, application requirements, selection criteria, position description and a pre-Application form are located on this website: https://anmm.nga.net.au/cp/index.cfm?event=jobs.listJobs

Find out more and apply online

June 24, 2016July 15, 2016

Cook and Banks: Charting the rumoured great southern land

The Royal Botanic Gardens and the Australian National Maritime Museum recently offered 6 virtual excursions looking at Cook, the voyage of HMB Endeavour and Banks the botany and plant classification. The collaboration began as a special presentation linked to the RBG 200th birthday celebrations.

The sessions on Wednesday 18th May were offered through DARTconnections and sold out very quickly and more spaces were added. The Thursday 19th May sessions were offered through Electroboard. The content was written by Mary Bell RBG and Anne Doran ANMM with Kieran Hosty an ANMM Maritime Archaeologist and Mary Bell presenting.

The students were very engaged with the content as it extended what they had been learning in the classroom. The questions they asked, clearly demonstrated that they had been thinking about what had been presented during the sessions and having Kieran who had dived on the wreck sites to give that extra insight was very useful. He may have inspired students to think about archaeology as a career.

The RBG and ANMM are considering offering this cross curriculum program again next year, to support teachers in the classroom and provide access to experts from both organisation. The program reached almost 1000 students.

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016

CAASTRO in the Classroom sessions for 2016

CAASTRO in the Classroom has an exciting year ahead with some intriguing new video conferencing sessions offered to schools all over Australia.

Bookings are now open for all school terms for these engaging sessions presented by research scientists, with newly-developed pre- and post-visit resources provided for each topic.

Topics for 2016 are ‘Awesome Astronomy‘ for Year 5, ‘Solar System and Beyond‘ for Year 7, ‘Big Bang – How to Make a Universe‘ for Year 10 and ‘Special Relativity‘, ‘Cosmic Engine‘ and ‘Gravity and Orbits‘ for Year 11 and 12 Physics.

December 1, 2014March 24, 2020

Virtual Science Club

In May and June 2014 a number of Virtual Excursions Australia members were involved in a video conferencing science club that brought students from across Sydney to do science experiments in an informal after school session in 3 Sydney libraries.

Coordinated by Fizzics Education, Sydney Olympic Park and Greater Western Sydney GIANTS Football Club, the 7 week program linked hands on science experiments with leadership and life skills.

Each week guests from a number of Virtual Excursion Australia members were able to join the sessions whereby the students could learn all about organisations such as the Australian Museum, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, ReefHQ, Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum, State Library NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Macquarie University and the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Video Conferencing Science Club presented by Fizzics Education with special guests from the Australian Museum

This science club represented the first of its kind in Australia and showed the strong potential for collaborative technologies to bring together distant communities together to learn about their world and culture in a real time environment.

Check out the video of the program at Vimeo – Video conferencing science club

Thanks to Blacktown Libraries, Auburn Library and Hurstville Museum & Gallery for hosting the students!

For further information about how you can get involved please contact Ben Newsome at Fizzics Education.

May 15, 2014May 16, 2014

VC Science Club kicks off with libraries; no codec, no problem!

Term 2 has seen the introduction of a science club held via video conference connecting students at Auburn Library, Blacktown Library and Hurstville Library Museum & Gallery to the science presenters at Fizzics Education and Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA). Known as ‘Leadership; It’s Not Rocket Science’, the weekly after school science club integrates character and leadership development exercises by SOPA integrated with engaging hands-on science activities by Fizzics Education in an immersive video conferencing environment. Working with local Council IT and education officers the club was brought to life by meshing tablets and formal video conference infrastructure through the VCme bridging solution. Together with internal WiFi secured and local training conducted on using H.323 software multi-point conferencing with different hardware endpoints works a treat!

Fizzics Education runs the club as a central helpdesk, which means students can work at their own pace on their experiments once the initial guidance is given. This has the additional safeguard on connectivity as any difficulties in connecting the external sites can be solved by pulling them into the conference via the multisite function on the Fizzics codec.

In addition to the science and aspirational aspects of the club, weekly guests from across the Virtual Excursions Australia community also contribute to the mix where guests speak about how they got to work in their job and how might students use science as a possible career path. Open to students in Years 5 and 6 plus their parents or guardians, the science club can be extended into any site wanting to foster community engagement using science & technology via a informal setting as the medium.

Further information on the science club can be found through the website

March 11, 2014May 7, 2014

Powerhouse Museum and Vandi Tompkins

On the morning of Thursday 27 February, the Powerhouse Museum’s Mars Lab team linked up with eight Australian high schools and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to speak with Vandi Tompkins, driver of the Mars rover Curiosity.

There was quite a bit of excitement around this event. The Minister assisting the Premier on Western Sydney, Executive Director Public Schools for the Department of Education and Communities and the Powerhouse Museum’s director, Rose Hiscock, all gathered at Casula High School (one of the schools joining in the video conference) to watch the event unfold.

From here at the Powerhouse in the Mars Lab studio, the Mars Lab team chatted with Vandi and invited young people at the participating schools to ask her some questions. Vandi told us about the latest news on Curiosity, having recently crossed Dingo Gap, a region on Mars named after a place in Western Australia, and heading over to a steep rocky region called Kimberley (also named after an Australian region!).

Vandi spoke about her dreams as a young girl in India to one day work in a space related job, to studying robotics and finally ending up working for NASA. She shared some of the maps and planning tools they use to prepare for each drive, showed us images of Curiosity and told us about what she does in her free time – drive motorcycles and rock climb (you know, the usual!)

One of the most memorable questions came from a year ten student: “What if I want to pursue a career in science and am not smart enough”. It made us realise what an important role we play at the Powerhouse Museum in building confidence and career paths for young people, and of course anyone smart enough to want a career in science has taken the first step!
Vandi then connected to our Museum’s Mars Lab rover, Mawson, via the internet and drove Mawson around the Mars Yard. She performed a few manoeuvres as she giggled excitedly saying how much fun it was to drive a rover in Australia through a web browser. She made a few comparisons between Mawson and Curiosity, saying that many of the functionalities were very similar.

The experience was a truly inspiring and memorable one, not only for the lucky young people who participated in the video conference link up, but also for everyone all over the world who watched the event live online as well.

January 20, 2014January 27, 2014

ITEC 2014 Call for Papers

Interactive Technology in Education Conference Call for Paper

ITEC 2014 is fast approaching and an exciting program of international and national keynote speakers and a range of other presentations is currently being developed. The programming committee is currently calling for submissions to present in a number of different strands.

Papers may be submitted in a number of strands:

Strand 1 (Wednesday 9 July)

Industry Professionals, Interactive Technology Experts, and/or Innovators in Content or Program Design and Delivery – this is your chance to share your valuable experience and insight. We particularly encourage papers which deal with innovation, experimentation, new uses for technology and are forward-thinking in their approach; with real case studies and real solutions used as examples.

Strand 2 (Thursday 10 July)
Teachers, Education Providers or Practitioners, Policy Makers, Academics, Research and Training Organisations are encouraged to make submissions for this strand. Papers could focus on: case studies demonstrating of exciting digital educational projects; innovative uses for technology in educational practice; benefits of using technology for education; evaluation and research; policy decisions and developments affecting digital education.

Showcase Sessions (Thursday 10 July)
Schools engaging with interactive, real time education partnerships (i.e cultural/ language exchanges, cross school projects, virtual delivery of lessons) and providers of interactive, real-time educational programs from cultural institutions, museums, science organisations and libraries are encouraged to submit a proposal to be part of a ‘Showcase’ session. Successful submissions will be offered 7-minutes to showcase their programs. Presentations are encouraged to feature live, interactive demonstrations and/or utilise AV to fully demonstrate the programs in a short space of time.

See the 2013 conference video for paper ideas.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Paper submissions close 7 April 2014 and all papers must be submitted electronically using the Conference’s Online Submission System.

For more information see the full ITEC 2014 site

December 30, 2013March 24, 2020

Virtual Excursions Australia 2013 wrap up

It’s been an amazing year for Virtual Excursions Australia (VEA). Throughout 2013 we have been busy setting up and writing content for the website, Twitter feed and Facebook pages, planning events and consulting on virtual excursions and video conferencing.

Virtual Excursions Australia's activities during 2013 — Virtual Excursions Australia’s activities during 2013

It has been really exciting to see VEA grow into a collaborative network of content providers. During 2013 the network has expanded to include members from New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Northern Territory. In 2014 we will continue to expand and have participants from across Australia.

Virtual Excursions Australia network met every 6 weeks to discuss new technology, share ideas and coordinate events. These meetings generated some amazing discussions and helped create content for teacher professional development sessions, conferences and the video conferencing festival and one day event throughout 2013.

The Virtual Excursions Australia network, website and social media presence were launched by Senator Lundy at the Interactive Technology in Education Conference at Sydney Opera House in July 2013. We have over 120 people that are part of the VEA network and 18 organisations listed on the VEA website.

There have been a great list of event coordinated through Virtual Excursions Australia ensuring that there is something that would suit every school including:

Pi Day to celebrate International Pi Day
Slime Day just for fun
SciFest Video Conferencing Festival promoting science and technology.
ClickFest Video Conferencing Festival highlighting the diversity and scope of video conferences available to schools across Australia
Marine Day linked to Ocean Care day to promote healthy marine environments

Thousands of students from across Australia have participated in these event and we are planning to run even more events during 2014.

Keep an eye out for the new calendar feature on the website for upcoming 2014 events.

September 24, 2013September 30, 2013

YES 2013 LIVE Launch 23rd October, 9:30am

YES 2013 LIVE Launch Video Conference

YES 2013 LIVE LAUNCH: Meet The Hon. Robyn Parker MP, NSW Minister for the Environment and Heritage as schools across NSW present innovative and inspirational examples of sustainability in action

9:30am – 10:30am on Wednesday 23rd October, 2013
Book your seat in the front row at the 2013 Youth Eco Summit!!

This is a unique opportunity to meet the NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage and make your live appearance CENTRE STAGE at the 2013 Youth Eco Summit.

Participating schools will engage in a facilitated discussion on contemporary aspects of sustainability before being joined by The Hon. Robyn Parker MP who will hear from selected primary and secondary schools around NSW, reporting on sustainability initiatives, innovations and achievements in their schools and communities.

All sites connected into the video conference will be appearing in real time on the massive Event Screen at the heart of YES – so hundreds of people onsite will be able to see and hear you!!

The session will progress as follows:

9:30am Meet & greet with discussion on sustainability principles and practice

9:50am Welcome to Country

9:55am Welcome to YES 2013

10:00am Minister’s address

10:05am State of Sustainability (6 schools around NSW will report on sustainability initiatives in their local area)

10:20am Wrap-up & YES Launch

We are working to connect some interstate and overseas schools into this session as well – This will be a memorable connection not to be missed so BOOK NOW!!

Don’t forget, the full range of FREE YES video conferences on 23 and 24 October, 2013 can be viewed here http://www.virtualexcursionsaustralia.com.au/youth-eco-summit-live-free/

and booked here: http://dartconnections.org.au/view-provider?ProviderID=1147835