At the recent AGM for the Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame the Rio Tinto Education Officer provided a summary of activities for 2004. Read the Education Report for 2004.
Thank you for the opportunity to tell you about the exciting developments in Education for the APMHOF.
I have much to tell about our achievements this year and our exciting plans for next year. I will try to be brief:
- The Exploration Zone has been an amazing success over the past year. Opened in early December last year we have had many visitors discovering the fun of learning about the minerals industry through interaction. It is very pleasing to walk down the foyer and look into The Exploration Zone to see a family playing the career floor game, or some of our grey hair nomad visitors sitting at the Drilling and the Environment exhibit making choices on the way to the drilling site.
- A measure of the success of our educational programs and of The Exploration Zone is reflected in our education group visitor numbers. I am extremely pleased to report to you our members that we have had an increase of over 25% in our education group visitors and even better - we have had an increase of around 85% in our local school group visitor numbers.
- I think our local schools have realised the added value that they can now have with the development of this Hall of Fame and the implementation of education programs. Throughout the year we have strived for a guide to stay with the group throughout their stay. This provides each group with a point of contact throughout their stay and it provides the students with a consistent delivery of their educational experience, the opportunity to develop a rapport with the group during their visit makes a real difference to their experience.
- The success we have experienced in the education programs I must emphasise is not just due to Education personnel - we work as a team and the experiences our visitors have and keep coming back for is a result of the collaborative way our team works, from our cleaning staff who make sure everything looks great for our visitors, our guides who just helped me with providing 130 yr 8 students a great day yesterday, our café staff, Chaffers reception staff and accounts people who make sure the bills are paid - the whole team has worked for this success.
- Our education role does not just extend to visitors. We have an outreach program whereby I visit schools and speak with students, deliver professional development for teachers, and develop community exhibitions. Much of this outreach work has been a co-operative effort working with Dr Angela Riganti from the Geological Survey of WA and education officers from the Chamber of Minerals and Energy. We have taken groups of teachers on tours of underground gold and nickel mines and toured the mills, even producing resources for teachers to use in their classrooms. We recently participated in the Science Awareness Festival and displayed the diverse array of careers available in Earth Science. This lead to a community display in our local library for Earth Science Week.
- The APMHOF have also been involved in the local education providers network, we have produced a great promotional brochure and distributed it to many schools around WA. This year we have brought groups of teachers up for a weekend of discovery - showing off the great opportunities for learning that we offer for school groups coming to the Goldfields for their school camp.
- The recent relaunch of our website has been very exciting for the engagement of virtual visitors and the vast opportunities that a globally accessible website can provide.
- Another great success has been our periodic table. We have been able to have them printed in 2 sizes and present them to visiting schools. They are also on sale at a very reasonable price for our general public visitors from our gift shop. This has been made possible by the generosity of the AUSIMM who have supported the development of our educational material. The periodic table is so successful we have even received requests from school teachers in the UK.
- Plans for next year are just as exciting and hectic, if not more so... Some of the great things we have to look forward to include
- Developing a program of introduction for teachers who are new to the Goldfields next year.
- Developing and facilitating underground mine tours for local teachers
- Working with WASM to develop a program of industry visits for their first year students.
- Develop an advocacy program in local schools ensuring we have a point of contact in all schools.
- Attending science teachers and geography teachers association meetings to promote our facility and educational programs.
- Working closely with the Chamber of Minerals and Energy in promotion of the industry and delivery of educational programs
- Using our website as a valuable tool to widen our audience and ensure a global perspective
These are some of the exciting things we have achieved this year and that we hope to do next year. Through these activities and the many other things we have achieved and plan for but I haven't even begun to mention, I believe that we are living up to the objectives of providing education and inspiration to all our visitors young and old, real and virtual.