Discover Virtual Excursions for your students
Then, have your students try their hand at driving the Mars Lab’s robotic rovers remotely from your classroom over the internet!
TAKE YOUR STUDENTS ON A MISSION TO MARS!
In this exciting 2 PART virtual excursion workshop, your students get the unique opportunity to drive a robotic rover via a web browser from your classroom across the Mars Yard (a re-creation of the surface of Mars) located at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
Led by the Mars Lab team via video conference, your students will explore the various landforms and features of the Martian surface to examine Mars’ history, geological evolution and potential evidence of past habitable environments. During the excursion your students will:
– work collaboratively to plan their mission using a mapping application
– practice driving the rover using a virtual simulation
– work collaboratively to drive the rover to sites of interest on the Mars Yard
– take photographs of sites of interest using the rover’s camera
The program focuses on collaboration, planning, observation and scientific investigation.
PROGRAM OUTLINE
Part 1| Introduction to Mars exploration and the Mars Lab (45 minutes) – Oct 8 at 9:30AM
Part 2| The mission (90 minutes) – TBD (Please book PART 2 by calling 02 9217 0349)
Part 1| Introduction to Mars exploration and the Mars Lab (45 minutes)
Via video conference, the Mars Lab team in Sydney will introduce your class to Mars exploration and the Mars Mission 5 activity. They will explain how the class will prepare for their Mars Mission.
Part 2| The mission (90 minutes)
The mission is the highlight of the session where mission teams get to drive the real robot rover and to play 5 different operational roles that will contribute to the class’ successful completion of the mission. Students will use the rover to capture images of features and landforms associated with their ‘clues’ for later analysis.
*For a more detailed outline of the program, please visit the Mars Lab website at: http://www.themarslab.org/unit/mars-mission-5/
World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ key event for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years World Environment Day has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is celebrated in over 100 countries.
The theme for 2014 is Raise your voice not the Sea Level.
World Environment Day is an opportunity for everyone to realize not only the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change. Join the Australian Museum, National Maritime Museum, Taronga Zoo and the Powerhouse Museum in a 3 day festival recognising World Environment Day.
3 June
World Environment Day – David Rabbitburrow presents The Wonder of Whales and their relatives
Time: 14:00
Overview: Join our intrepid groovy animal expert and media celebrity David Rabbitburrow to discover just how amazing these fascinating creatures are! Also investigate some of the threats to their future and what we can do to help.
4 June
World Environment Day – David Rabbitburrow presents The Wonder of Whales and their relatives
Time: 10:00
Overview: Join our intrepid groovy animal expert and media celebrity David Rabbitburrow to discover just how amazing these fascinating creatures are! Also investigate some of the threats to their future and what we can do to help.
5 June
World Environment Day – Catchment Health
Time: 09:30
Overview: To celebrate World Environment Day the Australian Museum is participating in the World Environment Day video conference festival.The Catchment Health video conference explores some of the impacts facing our terrestrial and marine environments. This session looks at the importance of catchments and how everything we do on land has impacts in our marine environments.
World Environment Day – Taronga Zoo
Time: 10:00
Overview: Celebrate World Environment Day and adventure over to Taronga Zoo to learn more about the remarkable animals we share environments with around the World. This inspirational video conference will explore the plight of animals such as the Sumatran Tiger, Western Lowland Gorilla, Australian Sea Lion and our very own Corroborree Frog. All animals classed as endangered and in need of very specific actions from people to help their recovery.
World Environment Day: Transport Past & Present
Time: 10:00
Overview: Have you ever wondered what types of transport zoomed around our streets, railways and skies before motor cars, electric trains and planes? Come find out with Finn, our 20th Century transport enthusiast, as he transports you back in time to Sydney in the early 1900s.
World Environment Day – Bugwise
Time: 10:30
Overview: To celebrate World Environment Day the Australian Museum is participating in the World Environment Day video conference festival. Bugwise explores the exciting and diverse world of invertebrates. Students will learn how to identify common groups of invertebrates and why they are important.
World Environment Day: Sustainable Solutions Workshop
Time: 11:30
Overview: Put on your eco-designer thinking caps and take part in this hands-on workshop! Learn about ecological footprints and what it means to be sustainable. Meet Mr Airhead and teach him how to think sustainably using the 6 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Refuse and Rethink. Utilising ‘Rethink’ students complete a Lifecycle Analysis of a common product and come up with ways to reduce the product’s ecological footprint.
World Environment Day – Bugwise
Time: 12:30
Overview: To celebrate World Environment Day the Australian Museum is participating in the World Environment Day video conference festival. Bugwise explores the exciting and diverse world of invertebrates. Students will learn how to identify common groups of invertebrates and why they are important.
World Environment Day – Taronga Zoo
Time: 13:00
Overview: Celebrate World Environment Day and adventure over to Taronga Zoo to learn more about the remarkable animals we share environments with around the World. This inspirational video conference will explore the plight of animals such as the Sumatran Tiger, Western Lowland Gorilla, Australian Sea Lion and our very own Corroborree Frog. All animals classed as endangered and in need of very specific actions from people to help their recovery.
World Environment Day – Catchment Health
Time: 13:30
Overview: To celebrate World Environment Day the Australian Museum is participating in the World Environment Day video conference festival.The Catchment Health video conference explores some of the impacts facing our terrestrial and marine environments. This session looks at the importance of catchments and how everything we do on land has impacts in our marine environments.
World Environment Day David Rabbitburrow presents The Wonder of Whales and their relatives
Time: 14:00
Overview: Join our intrepid groovy animal expert and media celebrity David Rabbitburrow to discover just how amazing these fascinating creatures are! Also investigate some of the threats to their future and what we can do to help.
World Environment Day – Plastic not so fantastic in the ocean
Time: 14:00
Overview: Plastics are everywhere. It’s hard to imagine a life without using plastics. But the downside is that a lot of plastic enters the environment, where it will linger for hundreds of years. In the ocean, plastic moves into the so-called Great Garbage Patches. But why do these patches form? And whose garbage is where? What effect does the plastic have on marine life?
Virtual Excursions Australia is proud to support this event.
2014 is set up to be an exciting year for videoconferencing at the Powerhouse Museum! We are launching a whole new suite of regular programs starting Friday February 14th. Book your Powerhouse Museum virtual excursion on the DART Connections website.
Here’s a snapshot of what the Powerhouse Museum has to offer:
For Good Measure: Fun with measurement and standards
MATHEMATICS: Stages 2-3
What do ‘Peter Piper’ and ‘Jack and Jill’ nursery rhymes have to do with maths and measurement?
What are gills, bushels, pecks and the smoot? Find out in this special hands-on maths video conference! JoinPowerhouseMuseum Curator Matthew Connell on this mathematic adventure which includes access to the measurement collection usually kept locked away from the public. Students interact throughout the session with fun hands-on activities in your classroom. Get your students experimenting with measurement and mathematics!
Sustainable Solutions Workshop
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: STAGE 3
Put on your eco-designer thinking caps and take part in this hands-on workshop!
Babbage & his Difference Engine
MATHEMATICS: STAGES 5-6
Celebrate International Pi Day with an exciting session on the inventor of the computer, Charles Babbage!
Powerhouse Museum’s Principal Curator, Matthew Connell, introduces students to one of the first computing machines ever invented, the Babbage Difference Engine No. 1.
Transport: Past & Present (Available from May 9)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY & HISTORY: Stages ES1-2
A unique character-guided tour through Sydney’s transport history and future options. Using objects from our PowerhouseMuseum collection as well as archival images and footage, students will be transported back in time in this engaging and interactive program.
Visit the PowerhouseMuseum’s page on DART Connections website to book a session and for full details of upcoming sessions.
If you would like to participate in a session on another time that is not listed, or have any other questions, pleaseemail video.conferencing@phm.gov.au
