Taronga Education

24/06/2024

Looking for an engaging NAIDOC event for your students?

To Celebrate NAIDOC week, the Taronga Education Team are offering a FREE digital live performance of our Animals of the Dreaming program on Friday 26th July at 1:00pm.

Come and join Uncle Col and our amazing Educators as they present an engaging experience of storytelling and music. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of unique and wonderful Native Australian animals, such as a frog, possum, lizard, snake, and turtle up close to the camera!

REGISTER HERE: https://taronga.tfaforms.net/50

FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION HERE:
https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/naidoc-week

To Celebrate NAIDOC week, the Taronga Education Team are offering a FREE digital live performance of our Animals of the Dreaming program on Friday 26th July from 1:00pm.

17/01/2024

Calling all teachers!

Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo is having a Teachers Day on Thursday 25th January. Bring your family for FREE, and get the opportunity to learn about our educational programs and visit our immersive habitat classrooms, as well as explore the Zoo.

Follow the link below for more details!

Taronga would love to invite all teachers and their family (one extra adult and two children) to enjoy a complimentary day at Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo on Friday July 14.

10/10/2023

⭐️Enrichment Design-Highly Commended⭐️

As a follow up to yesterday's winner post, we would like to commend these students on their incredible efforts in our STEM Enrichment Design Competition.

These students, who are both from the same school as the winner, were awarded highly commended for the Sun Bear category:

Ethan and Charlotte from St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School Woolooware

These students were awarded highly commended for the Echidna category:
Leila from St Anthony of Padua Catholic College Austral

and

Matteo from St. Columba’s Catholic Primary School Leichhardt North

These entries were innovative and impressed the judging panel making it challenging to select the winning entries, so we want to congratulate these students on their fantastic work.

We would like to thank all students for their submissions to the 2023 Enrichment Design Competition and encourage you all to participate in the 2024 competition which will be released in Term 3 next year!

09/10/2023

‼️ 2023 ENRICHMENT DESIGN COMPETITION WINNER ALERT ‼️

Last term the Taronga Education Team held their annual STEM Enrichment Design Competition. This year the task was to design and build an enrichment object for either the Sun Bear or the Echidna. This year we had some of the most complex and natural looking enrichment which made it very challenging for the judges.

A huge congratulations for this year's winners:

Kai from St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School Woolooware who won the Sun Bear category. See Kai's design in the first photograph.

and

Allegra from St. Columba’s Catholic Primary School Leichhardt North who won the Echidna category. See Allegra's design in the second photograph.

These two students demonstrated outstanding design thinking in order to develop these interactive and natural looking enrichment objects for the Sun Bear and the Echidna. We are looking forward to hosting the winning classes at Taronga Zoo Sydney this term to see the enrichment items being put to the test by our two species.

Again, a huge congratulations to Kai and Allegra for their brilliant designs. We will also announce our highly commended students over the next week.👏

23/08/2023

There is still time to put your design thinking skills together and enter our enrichment design competition to win an excursion for your class to Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo. We are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity in developing feeders that are going to encourage some of Taronga's favourite animals to display their natural behavours.
https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/enrichment-design-competition?fbclid=IwAR1OsXgXpMuZA5fyQzhayMPojy3ZMdsRXq6yyCBIMqNsOm8r4mBiV--6lQw

Zoo keepers and volunteers at Taronga Zoo spend a large amount of time creating enrichment for the animals in their care. Put your design and productions skills to the test by submitting a new and exciting enrichment design for animals found at Taronga Zoo.

17/07/2023

Win a visit for your class to Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo!

Put your design and production skills to the test by submitting a new and exciting enrichment design for one of two animals found at Taronga Zoo- The Sun Bear and the Echidna.

The winners of this STEM based project will be selected by an expert panel of judge zookeepers and behavioural scientists from Taronga Zoo and have the chance to watch their enrichment go in with one of these animals!

See the website for all the resources and more information!

Zoo keepers and volunteers at Taronga Zoo spend a large amount of time creating enrichment for the animals in their care. Put your design and productions skills to the test by submitting a new and exciting enrichment design for animals found at Taronga Zoo.

13/07/2023

We look forward meeting our colleagues who signed up for tomorrow’s Taronga Teachers’ Day.
Registrations are now closed, please make sure you arrive during the 9.30am and 11.00am sign in window. After this time we will be unable to validate your entry.
To speed up the process, please have your accreditation receipt or be logged into your ETAMS account to show that you are a current accredited teacher.
If you missed out, we look forward to engaging with you at a future event.

27/06/2023

We love hearing about your engagement with our Animals of the Dreaming performance. Thank you to everyone who tuned in live or watched the the replay at 2pm. It was a very special event and a great privilege for us to be able to work with Uncle Col to share his knowledge, story and music with students across Australia.

27/06/2023

Teachers, this one is for you!
To thank you for all your hard work, the Taronga Teachers' Day is running on Friday July 14 at both Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo. As part of this, teachers and their family will receive free entry to the zoo. You will have the opportunity to hear about the programs on offer for schools, have a brief animal encounter and those who arrive first will receive a complimentary welcome pack.

For more information and to secure your spot head to:

Taronga would love to invite all teachers and their family (one extra adult and two children) to enjoy a complimentary day at Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo on Friday July 14.

15/06/2023

FREE Animals of the Dreaming Online Performance

To Celebrate NAIDOC week, the Taronga Education Team are offering a FREE digital live performance of our Animals of the Dreaming program on Tuesday 27th June at 11:45am.

Come and join Uncle Col and our amazing Educators as they present an engaging experience of storytelling and music. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of unique and wonderful Native Australian animals, such as a frog, possum, lizard, snake, and turtle up close to the camera!

Animals of the Dreaming Zoomobile is an inspiring program combining two fascinating aspects of unique Australia – native animals and the Dreamtime. This program is delivered by Brewarrina Elder, Colin Hardy OAM and supported by our Indigenous zoo staff.

09/06/2023

The Taronga Education Team is excited to share one of the stories from our Wild Writing Competition. This beautiful piece was written by Anna in Stage 3 at Cherrybrook Public School. Thank you to everyone who submitted their work.

08/06/2023

The educators at Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo have a special school holiday event planned. Stay tuned for more information.

07/03/2023

The Zoo Education Officers at Taronga are pleased to support our teaching colleagues by providing a resource that can be used as a NAPLAN practise.
Taronga’s Wild Writing competition is designed to engage students in imaginative writing, with the added incentive of the chance to win a family pass to Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

The competition is open to students in all stages and Zoo Education Officers will be marking submissions based on a selection of NAPLAN criterion.

The outdoors has so much potential for inspiration. Take a walk down the unknown path... where does it lead you? What senses are activated as you approach an obstructed view? What are you hoping to see? Be cautious as you approach the unknown, but don’t be afraid, this could be the start of your g...

06/03/2023

Last Thursday the Zoomobile ventured to Kangaloon to talk about habitat with the students of Kangaloon Public School We were also so excited to visit their lovely school and work with Illawarra Environmental Education Centre.

Thinking about booking a Zoomobile visit to your school? More information and our booking link can be found here https://www.taronga.org.au/education/zoomobile

15/12/2022

Taronga Education would like to congratulate Nevaeh from Taren Point Public School as the Stage 2 winner of the Wild Writing Competition.
Her creative piece, 'Walking in the forest at Taronga Zoo' demonstrated her imagination and ability to use descriptive language at such a young age.
Thanks so much for being a part of the competition Nevaeh.

13/12/2022

Taronga Education would like to congratulate Freya from Como West Public School as the Stage 3 winner of the Wild Writing Competition.
Her creative piece, 'From the eyes of a crested pigeon' was exquisite, showing a combination of imagination and connection with nature.
Please take the time to read Freya's work.

12/12/2022

Taronga Education would like to congratulate Sofia from Chevalier College as the Stage 4 winner of the Wild Writing Competition.
Zofia's poem "O' Just a little Leap" left our team in awe at the beauty portrayed and the effort put into constructing this piece of writing.
Please take the time to read this wonderful poem.

The Stage 3 and 2 winners will be announced later in the week

11/11/2022

We often encourage students to use this as it is one of the most simple to use citizen science apps available. If you’ve been thinking of trying it out but never got around to it perhaps this is the week you can be an active member of the FrogID community.

FrogID week is happening right now 🙌🐸

We’re calling on people across to Australia to record frog calls using the Frog ID app and help us save Australia’s frogs between the 11th-20th Nov.

Over 40 of Australia’s 246 native frog species are on the edge of extinction and threatened by habitat loss, pollution, disease and climate change.

By recording frog calls with the free FrogID app, you’ll be helping scientists understand where frogs are distributed, and when and where they breed. Every FrogID submission helps understand the health of frog populations and inform conservation efforts.

Download the app and get involved here: https://bit.ly/3dEjaZC

06/11/2022

Just a reminder that this is the final week to enter your short stories in our Wild Writing Comp. The education team are excited to read how the living world has inspired your creativity.

The outdoors has so much potential for inspiration. Take a walk down the unknown path... where does it lead you? What senses are activated as you approach an obstructed view? What are you hoping to see? Be cautious as you approach the unknown, but don’t be afraid, this could be the start of your g...

06/11/2022

The outdoors has so much potential for inspiration. Take a walk down the unknown path... where does it lead you? What senses are activated as you approach an obstructed view? What are you hoping to see? Be cautious as you approach the unknown, but don’t be afraid, this could be the start of your g...

18/10/2022

Did you forget to spend some quiet time counting birds for the Great Aussie Bird Count yesterday?
It doesn't matter if you did, you still have another 6 days to participate.

Celebrate National Bird Week by taking part in the biggest citizen science project to hit Aussie shores. Join thousands of people from across the country, heading out into their backyards, local parks or favourite open spaces to take part in the Aussie Bird Count.

16/10/2022

This is the last round of Highly Commended students for the STEM Enrichment Design Competition. This student submitted a design for our Cotton Top Tamarins and did an excellent job in the creation of this enrichment piece.

Congratulations to Max from Holy Family Catholic Primary School Menai on a wonderful entry. Your design was innovative and really impressed the judges.

We would like to thank everyone for their submissions to the 2022 Enrichment Design Competition and encourage you all to tune in for next year’s competition which will be occurring in Term 3 2023!

12/10/2022

ENRICHMENT DESIGN COMPETITION HIGHLY COMMENDED

As a follow up to our winner post, we would like to commend our first round of students on their wonderful effort in our STEM Enrichment Design competition. These students submitted designs to enrich our Asian Small-Clawed Otters.

Alyssa from Holy Family Catholic Primary School Menai

Sahnza from Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School Carnes Hill

Well done to Alyssa and Sahnza for their excellent entries. The judging panel was extremely impressed with your designs. They made it incredibly hard to pick just one winner! Keep up the innovation.

11/10/2022

!ENRICHMENT DESIGN COMPETITION WINNER ALERT!

Last term Taronga Education Education held their annual STEM Enrichment Design Competition. This year the task was to design and build an enrichment object for either a Cotton Top Tamarin, or our Asian Small-Clawed Otters. We had over 150 entries that were innovative and engaging which made it very challenging for the panel of judges to select just one winner.

A huge congratulations to this year’s winners:

Elanor from St Ambrose Catholic Primary School Concord West won the Asian Small-Clawed otter category. See Elanor’s design in the first photograph.

Molly from St. Columba’s Catholic Primary School Leichhardt North won the Cotton Top Tamarin category. See Molly’s design in the second photograph.

The Design Thinking demonstrated by these two students to develop these unique enrichment objects for our Cotton Top Tamarins and Asian Small-Clawed Otters was outstanding. Taronga Zoo Keepers, Behavioural Scientists and Educators were among the judging panel and were extremely impressed with the effort that had gone into every entry. We are looking forward to seeing the enrichment items being put to the test by our two species.

Again, a massive congratulations to Elanor and Molly! We will also announce our highly commended students over the next two days.

10/10/2022

There is something magical about the inspiration for creation that can be provided by nature.
During the first half of Term 4, Taronga Education will be running an imaginative writing competition and encourage you to get your students involved.
While the image of the path is given as a stimulus, their writing doesn't need to reference this directly. It is more to get students thinking about a journey or an adventure through the wild. Encourage your students to sit outside, appreciate their surroundings, reflect on the beauty of nature, and open their imagination to something creative.
We look forward to reading your entries.

The outdoors has so much potential for inspiration. Take a walk down the unknown path... where does it lead you? What senses are activated as you approach an obstructed view? What are you hoping to see? Be cautious as you approach the unknown, but don’t be afraid, this could be the start of your g...

06/09/2022

It was so good to have teacher professional learning return to Taronga.
Last Monday, the Taronga Education team, In collaboration with the Department of Education's Aboriginal Education and Wellbeing Advisors brought an intimate day of connection, respect and cultural understanding. Our keynote speaker, Corey Tutt was inspiring, encouraging all delegates to be the advocate for First Nations learning.

Stay tuned for more professional learning opportunities with the Taronga Education team

23/08/2022

A wonderful summary of Educator Alex At Taronga's trip to schools surrounding the Warrumbungle National Park Environmental Education Centre. We love taking the Zoomobile van to visit regional and remote schools in NSW.

Are you interested in the Zoomobile visiting your school? Get in touch about an incursion whether your school is in the Greater Sydney area, or beyond!

Email contact: [email protected]

21/08/2022

Happy Book Week!
This year’s theme is ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open.’ To help you do this, Taronga Education have teamed up with Dr Paula Peeters and the team from Urban Field Naturalist, which includes Taronga’s very own Dr John Martin, to bring you some activities from their books: Take this book for a walk’ and ‘A guide to the creatures in your neighbourhood.’

Use these activities to go outside and engage with the world, think about the relationships between the living and non living things, and lose yourself in a sense of wonder about what is happening every day, right around you without you even noticing.

https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/cbca-book-week

Taronga Education has teamed up with the Children's Book Council of Australia for Book Week 2022. The theme for this year is 'dreaming with eyes open' and we are fortunate enough to work with some amazing authors who can help you do just that, through nature journaling.

14/08/2022

National Science Week 2022 is all about Glass: More than meets the eye.

Taronga would like to use this as a platform for sharing some of our research and discoveries,

From looking through the lens of microscopes, vitrification of coral samples, to searching for elusive glass snails, there's more than meets the eye to securing a shared future for wildlife and people!

https://taronga.org.au/scienceweek2022 #

Take a look through the lens of Taronga’s science and conservation programs to celebrate Science Week 2022!

05/08/2022

Taronga Education are pleased to announce that we are running our Aboriginal Education day on Monday, August 29. Corey Tutt Founder of DeadlyScience and author of World's First Scientists, will be joining the Department of Education's Aboriginal Education and Wellbeing team to bring 4.5 hours of NESA accredited PD. This will involve a wonderful day of cultural understanding and best practice in embedding Aboriginal perspectives in teaching and learning.