Virtual Excursions Australia has a range of FREE virtual excursions on offer between 1 – 26 November. ClickFest is an annual virtual excursions festival run in November highlighting the diversity and scope of virtual excursions available to students across Australia.
There are live, interactive and engaging virtual excursions from some of Australia’s best online content providers. Topics and programs will vary over the virtual excursions festival to provide flexibility for teachers and students. There is something to suit everyone this November.
Virtual Excursions Australia has a range of FREE programs for Children’s Week 2021. Children’s Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood.
Natural Disasters
A hands-on science workshop where we investigate all manner of natural disasters and the science behind them.
Under the Sea
Take a journey beneath the waves to explore Australia’s amazing marine life. Discover different marine habitats and the animals that live there.
Liquid Nitrogen Show
A “super cool” science show where we freeze things, explode things and explore just what happens when objects are rapidly cooled or heated.
Fascinating Frogs
Did you know that there are 240 species of frogs found across Australia? Find out how you can identify the frogs in your local area.
ClickFest is an annual video conferencing festival run in November each year. ClickFest is an exciting initiative from education organisations across Australia. It highlights the diversity and scope of video conferences available to schools across Australia. Sessions are delivered free or at reduced cost to schools, providing a great opportunity for teachers to give it a go.
Topics and programs will vary over the month long video conferencing festival to provide flexibility for teachers and students. Each day multiple sessions will be available on a variety of topics from content providers around Australia.
Time: 11.00
Overview: Minibeast Magnified explores the exciting and diverse world of invertebrates. Students will learn how to identify common groups of invertebrates and why they are important. The workshop is designed to provide information and skills that will enable you and your students to conduct an invertebrate survey in your school.
Time: 14:00
Overview: The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
Overview: Australia has over 240 species of native amphibians, all of which are frogs. Frogs play a key role in many food webs, both as predators and as prey. By observing frog populations, we can get a good indication of the condition of the environment as frogs are sensitive to environmental change. At present, frog populations are declining all around the world.
Overview: Australia has over 240 species of native amphibians, all of which are frogs. Frogs play a key role in many food webs, both as predators and as prey. By observing frog populations, we can get a good indication of the condition of the environment as frogs are sensitive to environmental change. At present, frog populations are declining all around the world.
Overview: Don’t let your students miss out on this special opportunity to go back to the 1880s for a ‘lesson from the past’ in this live event at Rouse Hill Schoolhouse. The Schoolhouse was built in the 1880s and is set up as it would have looked when it was 19th century classroom. The students will meet their 1880s schoolmistress, Miss Fox, and participate a typical 19th century lesson based on the syllabus of the time. The class will sing the national anthem, God Save the Queen and the lesson will include elocution, arithmetic using an abacas and a drawing session.
Overview: The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
Overview: Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.11
Overview: Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a paleontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.11
Overview: Minibeast Magnified explores the exciting and diverse world of invertebrates. Students will learn how to identify common groups of invertebrates and why they are important. The workshop is designed to provide information and skills that will enable you and your students to conduct an invertebrate survey in your school.
Time: 14:00
Overview: Australia has over 240 species of native amphibians, all of which are frogs. Frogs play a key role in many food webs, both as predators and as prey. By observing frog populations, we can get a good indication of the condition of the environment as frogs are sensitive to environmental change. At present, frog populations are declining all around the world.
Earth Science Week 2017 is on soon. Join in from October 8-14, 2017 and celebrate the theme “Earth and Human Activity.” This year’s event, the 20th annual Earth Science Week celebration, promotes awareness of what geoscience tells us about human interaction with the planet’s natural systems and processes.
Earth Science Week – Fascinating Fossils
Time: 10:00
Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.
Earth Science Week – Fascinating Fossils
Time: 11:00
Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.11
Earth Science Week – Geology Rocks
Time: 13:00
The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
Earth Science Week – Geology Rocks
Time: 14:00
The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
Thursday 12 October
Earth Science Week – Geology Rocks
Time: 10:00
The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
Earth Science Week – Geology Rocks
Time: 11:00
The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
Earth Science Week – Fascinating Fossils
Time: 13:00
Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.
Earth Science Week – Fascinating Fossils
Time: 14:00
Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.
This post by Ben form Fizzics Education has a video and radio interview discussing the video conferencing.
This video covers the variety of educational virtual excursion festivals available for schools arranged by Virtual Excursions Australia. VEA is a network of museums, galleries, libraries, environmental centres, aquariums & more.
As you can see, there are so many opportunities available for schools, libraries, hospitals, remand centers and more to engage learners with real time learning with subject matter experts via video conference. It’s so easy these days! By the way, the interviewer was Jan Zanetis who is the Managing Director the Centre for Interactive Learning & Collaboration and a current International Society for Technology in Education board member.
You might like to find out more about events & learning festivals being conducted Virtual Excursions Australia and the work being done to reach remote learners via web and video conference! Also you might also like to know more about the Churchill Fellowship on best practice in science education via video conference I completed last year and it’s associated findings for Australian educators.
Ben from Fizzics Education connected with Unalaska library to run a video conference on the science of sound. As usual I had a blast working with the kids, but I got a great surprise to find that it got recorded by local community radio station kucb 89.7fm!
Video conferencing offers the opportunity to enrich regional and remote communities throughout the world. If your school or cultural organisation has the bandwidth and the hardware, why not consider running some connections to overseas sites? All you need is to do is to get in contact with a school or library district that uses virtual excursions and simply coordinate time zones using a time and date converter. The local connection time in Sydney was not an issue as the connection was after school hours for the library and this worked out to be 11:00am AEST… much more manageable than the 5:00am connections that sometimes need to happen for sites on the east coast of the USA!
The Australian National Maritime Museum offers a great range of video and web conferences for schools throughout the year. They are starting the year with 2 events the Women in Science Symposium and Frank Hurley – the Man Who Made History.
Women in Science Symposium at the Australian National Maritime Museum
Tuesday 8 March at 10am
For international Women’s Day the Australian National Maritime Museum, in partnership with the University of New South Wales is hosting a Women in Science Symposium. The aim is to encourage high school girls to look beyond the lab coats and to see the possibilities for careers in science.
Chaired by Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla, UNSW, the morning session will have a range of speakers from diverse areas including marine science, climate, ecology and innovation.
A live web stream of the presentation is being offered.
The Australian National Maritime Museum is delighted to present a special program for students studying the Frank Hurley documentary as a prescribed text for the Discovery Area of Study.
Meet the film makers Simon Nasht and Anna Cater to hear how they approached dealing with the subject matter, constructing the story and making the film. The talk will be followed by a Q & A where students will have the chance to ask Simon and Anna questions about their film and learn about the available HSC study resources.
We had a big year of events 2015 with Virtual Excursions Australia delivering hundreds of session reaching 10’s of thousands of students across Australia and the world. We finished up the year with the reVEAl conference in December bringing 120 delegate together.
reVEAL had delegates join at the Australian Museum in Sydney, the Australian Centre of Moving Image in Melbourne and though the live web stream. The full day program had a variety of sessions for content providers and teachers.
In 2016 Virtual Excursions Australia will host a variety of event including:
Harmony Day in March
World Environment Day 5 June
NAIDOC week 27 June – 1 July
SciFest throughout August
Threatened Species Day 7 September
Sea Week September
Earth Science Week October
ClickFest November
With 20 member organisations there is plenty of variety to suit every curriculum area and engage your students. See the DART Connections or CONNECTme calendars for sessions and bookings. Please let us know if there are other topic are you would like us to be involved with.
We are pleased to announce the Virtual Excursions Australia conference reVEAlon Tuesday 8 December. reVEAl will be FREE to all presenters and delegates.
ACMI in Victoria and the Australian Museum in NSW will be hosting the reVEAl. We will have presenters and delegates in each venue connected with via video conference. People can also dial into a single session or the whole conference.
The day is being designed to be fun, interactive and to provide networking opportunities for both teachers and content providers. There will be a variety of short sessions to provide something for everyone.
Content Provider Stream
9:15am – 9:30am Arrival & registration
9:30am – 9:45am reVEAl welcome
9:45am – 10:00am Value of video conferencing for cultural institutions
10:00am – 10.15am Techniques in presenting to camera
10:15am – 10:45am Tech talk
Morning Tea
11:30am – 11:45am How to help schools get comfortable with their equipment
11:45am – 12:15pm Content provider experiences (the good, bad & ugly)
12:15pm – 12:30pm Future directions all in discussion for content providers
Lunch
School Showcase
2:00pm – 2:15pm reVEAl welcome
2:15pm – 2:30pm The value of video conferencing for schools
2:30pm – 2:45pm Key Learning Area Experiences: STEM
2:45pm – 3:00pm Key Learning Area Experiences: Arts & Culture
Afternoon Tea
4:00pm – 4:15pm Key Learning Area Experiences: History
4:15pm – 4:30pm Key Learning Area Experiences: Sports & more
4:30pm – 4:40pm Booking platforms in Australia
4:40pm – 5:00pm Worldview
5:00pm – 5:30pm Networking
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters.Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters. Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
Fossils are fascinating reminders of life in ancient times and provide a window into the past. They can also reveal an amazing amount of information about extinct species and the ancient world. Step inside the shoes of a palaeontologist to use fossil material and modern animals to reconstruct some extinct Australian animals.
The Geology Rocks video conference will look at the dynamic earth forming processes. Students will learn about the layering of lava flows, see if rocks float and learn how to make a gas and find out about the rock cycle. You will also see real specimens and there will be opportunities to ask questions.
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters.Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
A hands-on science workshop where students investigate all manner of natural disasters.Your students will learn about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteorites, cyclones, pandemics and more in this engaging video conferencing workshop. Great for Earth Science Week!
NAIDOC Week is held in the first full week of July. It is a time to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions that Indigenous Australians make to our country and our society.
Virtual Excursions Australia is presenting the NAIDOC Week Video Conferencing Festival. This event will run before and after the July school holidays for student across Australia. Please join the Australian Museum, Australian National Maritime Museum, State Library of NSW, National Library of Australia and Sydney Olympic Park for a series of fabulous events.
Derek from the Australian Museum presenting the Totems workshop
Overview: “To know the future we must first know the past” (Aunty Fran Bodkin D’harawal Elder). In this session of our Koori Classroom series, D’harawal knowledge keeper, Shannon Foster will guide students through the origins of NAIDOC – also part of her own family story.
Overview: To celebrate NAIDOC week Indigenous Programs Manager Donna Carstens will discuss the cultural significance of water to indigenous people. Water is integral to the everyday life of communities for survival, travel and play. Listen to a Dreaming story, examine an Indigenous artwork and build a canoe replica.
Overview: “To know the future we must first know the past” (Aunty Fran Bodkin D’harawal Elder). In this session of our Koori Classroom series, D’harawal knowledge keeper, Shannon Foster will guide students through the origins of NAIDOC – also part of her own family story.
Overview: In this special NAIDOC week art workshop students will explore Indigenous culture and art from various regions of Australia. In this lesson students will create their own Australian Flag by investigating their cultural heritage as well as that of Australia’s first inhabitants, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Overview: “To know the future we must first know the past” (Aunty Fran Bodkin D’harawal Elder). In this session of our Koori Classroom series, D’harawal knowledge keeper, Shannon Foster will guide students through the origins of NAIDOC – also part of her own family story.
Overview: In this special NAIDOC week art workshop students will explore Indigenous culture and art from various regions of Australia. In this lesson students will create their own Australian Flag by investigating their cultural heritage as well as that of Australia’s first inhabitants, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Overview: To celebrate NAIDOC week Indigenous Programs Manager Donna Carstens will discuss the cultural significance of water to indigenous people. Water is integral to the everyday life of communities for survival, travel and play. Listen to a Dreaming story, examine an Indigenous artwork and build a canoe replica.
Overview: The Indigenous Totems session is a practical workshop where students learn about lifestyles and beliefs of Indigenous Australians whilst creating their own totem. Concepts and culture will be demonstrated with real artifacts and aboriginal cultural material.
Overview: To celebrate NAIDOC week Indigenous Programs Manager Donna Carstens will discuss the cultural significance of water to indigenous people. Water is integral to the everyday life of communities for survival, travel and play. Listen to a Dreaming story, examine an Indigenous artwork and build a canoe replica.
Overview: Students explore Indigenous culture and art from various regions of Australia. Students investigate the traditional styles, symbols, materials and tools of Indigenous art around Australia. They use Indigenous art and cultural objects as a stimulus to create their own design.
Overview: To celebrate NAIDOC week Indigenous Programs Manager Donna Carstens will discuss the cultural significance of water to indigenous people. Water is integral to the everyday life of communities for survival, travel and play. Listen to a Dreaming story, examine an Indigenous artwork and build a canoe replica.
Overview: To celebrate NAIDOC week Indigenous Programs Manager Donna Carstens will discuss the cultural significance of water to indigenous people. Water is integral to the everyday life of communities for survival, travel and play. Listen to a Dreaming story, examine an Indigenous artwork and build a canoe replica.
Overview: To celebrate NAIDOC week Indigenous Programs Manager Donna Carstens will discuss the cultural significance of water to indigenous people. Water is integral to the everyday life of communities for survival, travel and play. Listen to a Dreaming story, examine an Indigenous artwork and build a canoe replica.
Overview: This workshop focussing on the fascinating, but little known story of Aya-I-Ga, also known as Neighbour. Neighbour was the first Indigenous Australian to receive the Albert Medal for gallantry. This program allows participants to interact with the National Library of Australia’s presenters, original objects and photographs and is suitable for students in Years 7-10.
Virtual Excursions Australia is proud to support this event
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920′s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians.
