Thursday 13 December 2012

Local History meets Education thanks to WA History Foundation

We're delighted to announce we've received a grant from the Western Australian History Foundation for the development of education packages. The resources are being developed so they can be used solely with our online content or at our physical museum - making them of use to schools, teachers and students both locally and across Australia.



We're equally delighted to be working with Ignite Your Audience who are currently developing the educational resources, which will be linked to the new Australian History Curriculum.

Director of Ignite Your Audience, Shiona Herbert, has been in the education industry for the past 15 years. “Something wonderful about the new National History Curriculum is the focus on local history which has been really beefed up. The Carnamah Museum collection in conjunction with their online sources provides a huge spectrum of ideas and activities for students to connect with. The way information is presented on the Carnamah website is very attractive and stimulating to people of all ages. Kids in particular will enjoy navigating through the exhibits and online primary and secondary sources because they can do so with relative ease. Their teachers will be grateful for this too.”

A broad overview of the Australian History Curriculum is as follows: Early childhood students focus on how families of the past lived their lives, while Year 3 students look at the significance of people and places in a community. Year 4 students study early exploration and early interactions of Europeans and Aboriginal people. Year 5 students explore the role of early settlers in establishing the land and Year 6 students look at the impact of migration to Australia.  High school students examine the experiences Australians had during World War I and II. Carnamah and its surrounding regions has something that connects to all of these curriculum themes.



Ignite Your Audience is a company that likes to ‘think outside the box’, so to highlight items in both the Virtual Exhibits and the Museum displays, Shiona has made many engaging suggestions for how to strengthen ties with the local school. “I’d love to see a home economics challenge at the District High School where Master Chef teams make a Carnamah Biscuit recipe in the shape of cows! This places a unique spotlight the Pioneer lifestyle where many families had their own cow for milk, cream and butter, and it celebrates Bonny the Cow, who was quite an identity of the town back in the 1920’s.”

“I visited Carnamah recently and I loved the sense of humour present in the community, therefore I’d like to create a ‘caption competition’ where we upload a regional photo and ask people to submit a cheeky caption to accompany it. I’d love for kids to do this too; their imagination can run wild for creating dialogue.”

Our thanks and gratitude to the Western Australian History Foundation for their grant which is making this project a reality.

Update: www.carnamah.com.au/education