Educational Programs for Schools

Our educational programs for schools provide experiential opportunities for students to develop their historical concepts within the following topics. Please contact us if you would like to book into any of the following programs.

Past and Present Family Life Program

In this program students are encouraged explore present and past family life within the context of their own world. They will be able to explore similarities and differences between their own families and the families of others that lived over 100 years ago. Students will learn about similarities (continuity) and differences (change) in family life by comparing the present with the past. Students will investigate, through stories told, the links they have to the past and what changes have occurred. They will learn that sources of historical information can be physical items, such as letters, books, photographs, and household equipment, as well as oral stories of what life was like in the past. They will begin to use historical skills like asking questions, conducting interviews, and gathering sources to investigate past and present family life.

During this program students will:

  • discuss and recount stories of family and local history
  • explore the differences in family structures and roles, and how these have changed or remained the same over time
  • develop a narrative about the past
  • explore the changes and continuities in family life over time
  • analyse how has family life changed or remained the same over time
  • examine how the present is different from or similar to the past?
  • describe the sequence of time

Learning activities will include: House Tour, Old Fashioned Clothes Washing, Collecting Water with Yokes, Making Damper, Churning Butter, Exploring 19thCentury Games, Taking Photos with Costumes and a Treasure Hunt.

This program meets the following NSW History outcomes for Early Stage 1 and Stage 1:

  • HTe-1 communicates stories of their own family heritage and the heritage of others
  • HTe-2 demonstrates developing skills of historical inquiry and communication
  • HT1-1 communicates an understanding of change and continuity in family life using appropriate historical terms
  • T1-4 demonstrates skills of historical inquiry and communication

The Past in the Present: Technology – Changes and Impacts Program (Junior School Program)

This program explores the impact of changing technology on people's lives. Students will identify examples of changing technologies in their home or community. They will explore the similarities and differences of technology from the past through a range of activities and be able to sequence them over time.

(This program defines technology as things created by humans that can make our lives easier or solve problems)

During this program students will:

  • identify examples of changing technologies in their home or community
  • explore how technology reaches far beyond IT and that it has changed over time
  • compare, contrast and sequence changes in familiar and local technologies
  • identify and compare features of objects from the past and present
  • discover how changes to technology have shaped our daily lives
  • develop skills of historical inquiry and communication

Learning activities will include: House Tour, Candle Making, Damper Making, Churning Butter, Collecting Water to Wash Clothes Using Old Technology

This program meets the following NSW History outcomes:

  • HT1-3 describes the effects of changing technology on people’s lives over time
  • T1-4 demonstrates skills of historical inquiry and communication

A Walk Through History (Middle & High School Program)

Students explore the history of the local area during the 19- 20th Century, focussing on subsistence/mixed farming and the timber industry (Just a suggestion as mixed farming focuses on the broad range of skills required. Could draw in ideas such as the old milk cart that used to provide Cooranbong with milk from the Avondale dairy using a dipper and tin cans. I am sure you have access to photographs from these days. Changes to the timber industry could also be interesting with the use of Dora Creek as a way of transporting goods, then the arrival of the railway and now the use of trucks.

They will explore the changes in society and the experiences of individuals in each social class.

  • HT4-4 describes and explains the causes and effects of events and developments of past societies over time
  • HT4-7 identifies and describes different contexts, perspectives and interpretations of the past
  • HT4-8 locates, selects and organises information from sources to develop a historical inquiry
  • HT4-9 uses a range of historical terms and concepts when communicating an understanding of the past
  • HT4-10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written, visual and digital forms to communicate about the past

Continuity and change: changes and continuities in family life over time

Cause and effect: what may have influenced changes in everyday life over time

Perspectives: different points of view held by people from the past

Empathetic understanding: why people in the past lived as they did

Significance: the significance/importance of a family event in the past

Excursion

This unit will be supported with an excursion to Sunnyside. Students will be visiting the Heritage Cottage to have a hands-on experience of life in an 1890s Australian home. They will explore how families lived through history and identify each family member’s roles and responsibilities. They will investigate the tools and technologies of the past and be encouraged to identify how these have developed through time. Students will be encouraged to participate in hand-on activities such as collecting water, hand washing sheets on an old washboard, making damper, churning butter and playing games of the past. They will have an opportunity to explore the homestead and identify changes in family life over time.