Wednesday, 21 February, 2018 - 14:45
Do you know of any one location in Australia that you could learn about environmental science? Geology? Australian Aboriginal history and culture? Technology? Flora and fauna? Remote health and education services and essential life skills?
What about renewable energy? Aboriginal language? Biological science or environmental change and management? Well, the Northern Territory has all of this and more when you visit on a school trip.
The NT has some of the best immersion experiences in Australia where it can, quite literally, change student’s outlook on life; and there is nothing more rewarding than seeing a youngster’s mind being opened up for the first time. They start looking at the world from the outside in. They realise that their mobile phone and their latest footwear is so insignificant that their mindsets change. They become more knowledgeable. More resilient. More appreciative. And more understanding of the world that once was, and is now.
NT Learning Adventures is an initiative of the NT Government’s Tourism and Culture department, within Tourism NT, and incorporates a group of local NT tour, transport, accommodation and attraction suppliers that are all relevant for the education market. This makes it easier for schools to choose the right experience for their students. Operators are well versed in the requirements for school excursions, which makes it easier for schools and teachers to arrange a school trip.
Since 2014, the department of Tourism and Culture has hosted annual teacher familiarisation trips to the Northern Territory to showcase some of the educational experiences on offer for potential school trips. The teachers are able to see firsthand the extent of work the tour operators have gone to in relating their products to education. Wendy Kincses, a science teacher from Victoria’s Flinders Christian Community College, said along with the memories (from the 2014 Central Australian Teacher trip) there will be many opportunities to enrich her curriculum from her Central Australian experiences.
"Much of the information given was probably more relevant to the History or Indigenous Studies curriculum, but I can see many links to science – my curriculum area,” she said.
"Some of the best teaching happens when we get off track, and ‘hook’ students with interesting titbits of information; I have a wealth of experiences from this trip to share with students. I hope I can inspire them to travel to Central Australia.”
Another high school teacher from Victoria, Natalie Wood, echoed these sentiments and said schools should place more emphasis on Australian explorations rather than international trips, as she came to the realisation that our own backyard is rich with history and culture. Natalie was successful in producing a proposal to offer a school trip to the Top End in place of a Gold Coast or international trip.
"With everything we participate in on a school level, we need to be able to articulate the impact on the student learning experience. What NT Learning Adventures has achieved is having the tourism operators directly inform the schools of the educational purposes behind a trip to the NT,” she said.
In 2015, a group of 10 teachers from South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania visited the Northern Territory’s Top End. They visited Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield and Katherine, and not only had a fantastic time, but learnt a great deal of things themselves. One of the teacher’s comments on reflection of the trip was;
"As an Indonesian and Humanities teacher, I have been able to discuss what I’ve learned about the live cattle trade with my students, following the visit to Mount Bundy Station near Darwin. Since returning from the trip, I taught my students how the Northern Territory (in particular Arnhem Land) has been linked to Indonesia for many, many years before white settlement – the students loved hearing about the similarities in language and culture.”
The feedback from the NT Teacher trips continue to be the same with the overall experience being positive and genuinely interested in bringing their school students to experience the same thing. The NT also provides one of the best opportunities to incorporate the cross curriculum priorities in hands-on-learning due to the close proximity to Asia, Aboriginal history and heritage and the sustainable living environments.
The 2017 teacher trip took the group to Kakadu and Katherine again, with one teacher saying;
"This experience has confirmed that the NT is definitely a place our students need to experience. I think it could be the most important tour that our students experience in Australia, given its vast landscape, history, culture and personal growth.”
Another teacher said;
"I thought this was an outstanding initiative, and I was extremely impressed with the quality of the experiences and the time that was devoted to professionals’ and teachers’ questions. I am very grateful for this experience and hope to be back with students very soon.”
The trips are fully funded by Tourism NT and generally run in the first or last set of school holidays each year, alternating between the Top End and the Red Centre. The teachers hail from all over Australia from public, private and independent secondary schools and are individually selected based on their application. If you are interested in participating on any future teacher familiarisations, you can send your expression of interest to [email protected]
Tourism NT also has school excursion funding of up to $1000 per school group visiting the NT on a school tour. More information can be found at www.ntlearningadventures.com