There are several ways for schools to visit the Powerhouse Discovery Centre. Supervised and themed tours can be highly individualised and can be tailored to each group’s specific interests and needs in order to meet Key Learning Area requirements. All visits ensure that students and teachers experience and work directly with objects from the Museum’s collection with a focus on discovery and exploration.
Powerhouse Discovery Centre Education Philosophy
The Powerhouse Discovery Centre: Collection Stores at Castle Hill is the Powerhouse museum’s storage and collection care facility. Its centrepiece, the Display Store features over 3,000 objects and provides a museum like experience for visitors.
The Discovery Centre’s education and public programs provide our visitors with a range of engaging activities which encourage discovery and learning. Our philosophy is to enable visitors to enjoy and explore the museum’s collection.
The Discovery Centre presents innovative programs which provide life long learning experiences and supports teachers in the delivery of school curricula. Our ‘case studies’ enable our visitors to work directly with, and handle, objects from the Education Collection.
The Discovery Centre has over 60 dedicated volunteers and staff who deliver programs for diverse audiences.
Venue and safety information for school excursions
Display storage comes of age - Collections Council of Australia Ltd.
To enquire or to book your visit please phone the Discovery Centre on 02 9762 1300.
For further information and specific needs, please contact Lysele Assarapin, Education and Volunteers Coordinator on 02 9762 1303.
PRIMARY PROGRAMS
There are several ways for schools to visit the Powerhouse Discovery Centre. Supervised and themed tours can be highly individualised and can be tailored to each group’s specific interests and needs in order to meet Key Learning Area requirements. All visits ensure that students and teachers experience and work directly with objects from the Museum’s collection with a focus on discovery and exploration.
+ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Fowler ploughing engine (detail)
Photo: Jean-Francois Lanzarone
Weird and Wacky Machines:
Science and Technology Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4)
Weird and Wacky Machines is ideal for Years 3 and 4 students studying machines and transport. This guided program relates to the Science and Technology units, Out and About, Making It Easy, and also to the COGS unit, Machines (Syllabus Outcomes PPS 2.4 and PSS 2.5). This program includes a multi-media introductory presentation, followed by a tour of the Display Store and a hands-on activity where students can handle a series of objects and models.
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $7 per student / $4 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Length: 90 minutes.
Capacity per visit: 120 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $7 Students / $4 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students)
Available: Tuesdays–Fridays, 10am–4pm
Length: 90 minutes
Bookings essential (minimum two weeks’ notice)
+ HUMAN SOCIETY AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
Life in the Past:
HSIE Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)
Years 1 and 2 students discover how people lived, dressed, and travelled in Australia in the 1880s and early 1900s. This guided program is ideal for the Stage 1 units, Our Stories, Our Families, The Way We Were and Families: Past and Present (Syllabus Outcomes CCS 1.1, CCS 1.2, and CUS 1.3). This program includes a multi-media introductory presentation drawn from the story of a family visiting the 1879 International Exhibition in Sydney. A tour of the Display Store transports students back in time where they explore precious objects and early horse-drawn and steam-powered transport. The program includes a hands-on activity where students get the opportunity to examine artefacts from everyday life, past and present.
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $7 per student / $4 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Length: 90 minutes.
Capacity per visit: 120 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
+ SELF-GUIDED VISITS
This visit allows groups to wander through the Display Store at their own pace, experiencing the excitement of discovering the thousands of objects on display. Explore larger objects such as the Museum’s transport and technology collections and discover the Museum’s treasures by opening the thematic drawers on the upper level of the Display Store.
Teacher’s notes are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $5 per student / $4 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Capacity per visit: 120 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
To book your visit please phone the Discovery Centre on 02 9762 1300.
For further information and specific needs, please contact Lysele Assarapin, Education and Volunteers Coordinator on 02 9762 1303.
Fizzics Discovery Science Club
Fizzics Discovery Science Club has moved to Tuesdays!
Join us for rockets, bubbles, volcanoes, fossils and more! Get ready for ‘Clark Chaos’ in term 2 and delve into the world of science and have loads of fun while you learn! The Powerhouse Discovery Centre and Fizzics Education are pleased to continue the Fizzics Discovery Science Club, a 9-week after-school science club for children in Years 3—6.
Hosted by the Powerhouse Discovery Centre the Fizzics Discovery Science Club is a 9 week program on Tuesdays from 4.00pm to 5.00pm from Tuesday 30 April - 25 June, 2013.
The Fizzics Discovery Science Club covers Science and Technology, HSIE and Mathematics curriculum links and is a hands-on educational experience that makes learning fun!
$135.00 per student (including a Fizzics science kit at the conclusion of the course). Spaces are limited.
For more information and to book your place in the Fizzics Discovery Science Club, please download the flyer below or call the Discovery Centre on 02 9762 1300.
SECONDARY SCHOOL PROGRAMS
There are several ways for schools to visit the Powerhouse Discovery Centre. Supervised and themed tours can be tailored to each group’s specific needs in order to meet Key Learning Area requirements. All visits ensure that students and teachers both experience and work directly with objects from the Museum’s collection with a focus on discovery and exploration.
+ HISTORY
Photographic print, black & white, Australian Flora in Applied Art and Economic Botany courts, Technological Museum, photographed by NSW Government Printing Office, Sydney, New South Wales, October 1906 (Museum Archives number MRS 295/4/3, scan number 00221579)
Historical Inquiry: Preserving Our Past
History Mandatory Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8)
In Historical Inquiry, Years 7 and 8 History students take on the role of a historian/museum curator allowing them to handle a variety of objects in order to explore the nature and significance of history.
The visit begins with a multi-media presentation introducing the concepts of history, museums, and the conservation of heritage, followed by a tour of selected museum objects in the Display Store focusing on historical inquiry and the importance of preservation. The highlight of the visit is a glimpse inside one of the Discovery Centre’s behind-the-scenes storage areas, giving students the unique opportunity to learn about the importance of collection care and maintenance. This program is ideal for the Mandatory History Topic 1, Investigating History (Syllabus Outcomes 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6).
Please note that for visits booked on Thursdays only, students have the option to visit the Collections Lab to view the Australian Memorial AIDS Quilt documentation project. The Quilt comprises of 128 panels, created by friends and families to remember the lives of loved ones who died from HIV/AIDS in Australia. This provides students with the opportunity to engage with and explore aspects of current social history.
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $10 per student / $7 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Length: 120 minutes.
Capacity per visit: 60 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
Examining Evidence: Constructing Our Past
History Elective Stages 4 and 5 (Years 8, 9 and 10)
Examining Evidence: Constructing Our Past has been created for Elective History students, Years 8—10 (Stages 4 and 5), Topic 1: Constructing History, Syllabus Outcomes E5.2, E5.6, E5.8. This program focuses on developing the students’ understanding of the museum collection and reconstruction of the past by using a variety of primary and secondary sources.Following a multi-media presentation focusing on the history of the museum and its role in the preservation and storage of objects, students tour through the Display Store where they investigate a range of objects. A hands-on activity enables students to develop an understanding of the museum curator’s role as they create narratives by examining objects and other evidence. Students will also get the opportunity to learn about collection care and maintenance by visiting one of the Discovery Centre’s behind-the-scenes storage areas.
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $10 per student / $7 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Length: 120 minutes.
Capacity per visit: 60 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
The Times They Are A-Changin’
History Mandatory Stage 5 (Years 9 and 10)
The Times They Are A-Changin’ is designed to provide Stage 5 History students with an insight into how the lives of people have changed in the 20th century. Following a multi-media presentation, students investigate heritage first-hand by handling and examining individual objects to create their own timelines and sequences of change. A tour of the Display Store enables the students to explore a series of objects which demonstrate how life has changed in Australia during the last century. This program supports Mandatory History Topic 1 and 8 (Syllabus Outcomes 5.1, 5.4 and 5.5).
Prior to booking you will be required to choose three themes from the following; Home Appliances & Domestic Life; Entertainment & Leisure; Transport; Work & Inventions; or Fashion & Design. Students will also get the opportunity to learn about collection care and maintenance by visiting one of the Discovery Centre’s behind-the-scenes storage areas.
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $10 per student / $7 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Length: 120 minutes.
Capacity per visit: 60 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
+ TECHNOLOGY
Design, Make, Evaluate!
Technology Mandatory Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8)
Design, Make, Evaluate has been planned specifically to target Years 7 and 8 students studying Technology (Mandatory). The syllabus outcomes covered include 4.1.1, 4.1.2 and 4.1.3.This program investigates the process of design, with a focus on opportunities for designing, factors affecting design and the importance of designers using appropriate technology and resources. Students will have the unique opportunity to be able to view first-hand the work of professional designers and to compare the processes that these designers have used for the work undertaken in their own design projects at school.
This program includes a multi-media introductory presentation, a tour of the Display Store and a hands-on activity in the Resource Room. The hands-on activity has a key focus on the environment and students will have a unique opportunity to view the EcoLogic Kit, a mobile resource developed to engage consumers on the topic of designing for ecological sustainability. Students will be able to handle many product samples that have already had a positive impact on the environment. They will learn about the crucial role that designers have in creating an ecologically sustainable future, as well as what they can do, individually, to help ensure such a future.
A highlight of the program is a behind-the-scenes look inside a storage area where students have the rare opportunity to view a range of costumes and props from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Also on display are design models, storyboards, drawings and prototypes assisting students to get a feel for the design process undertaken by designers, from the initial ideas through to the finished product.
Detailed teacher’s notes and activity sheets are provided with your booking confirmation.
Cost: $10 per student / $7 PSP Schools. (One teacher free per 10 students.)
Available: Tuesday—Friday, 10.00am—4.00pm.
Length: 120 minutes.
Capacity per visit: 60 students.
Bookings essential. (Minimum two weeks’ notice is required. Subject to availability.)
To book your visit please phone the Discovery Centre on 02 9762 1300.
For further information and specific needs, please contact Lysele Assarapin, Education and Volunteers Coordinator on 02 9762 1303.