Australian National Maritime Museum Excursion 2019

2019-maritime

On Wednesday, 15 May, Year 9 iSTEM students visited the Australian Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour.

The excursion provided students with an opportunity to consider a range of problems faced by Naval engineers. Students boarded the HMAS Onslow (a decommissioned Australian Submarine), and tentatively edged their way through the cramped compartments to get a sense of what it would have been like to serve on the vessel. Our students quizzed the generous ANMM volunteers, and spent much of their time sketching components such as torpedoes, periscopes and turrets, most of which had been cut open to reveal beautifully machined mechanisms.

Students also visited the permanent collection, touring Kay Cottee’s Blackmore’s First Lady (Kay Cottee was the first woman to perform a single-handed, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world), and an exhibition named “Navigators”, which included artefacts and displays which charted contacts with Asia, like the Makassan trepang trade in northern Australia, through to the European era of Dutch, French and British explorers. There were some great Australian stories being retold by the students on the bus trip home.

The experience has hopefully better prepared students to deal with the technical demands of the current and upcoming iSTEM projects, such as the BG&E Engineering Challenge, Subs and F1 in Schools.

Thank you to Ms Alimane for her faultless work in preparing the excursion, and to Ms Gallagher and Mr Jones putting a great deal of energy into the care and wellbeing of our excellent students.

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