[Music plays and text appears: Exploring the science of the HMB Endeavour from the classroom]
[Image shows ships in harbour with the text HMB Endeavour, Darling Harbour, Sydney]
[Images show various close ups of HMB Endeavour]
[Image shows high school students walking down hallway and into classroom. Text appears: Kenmore State High School, Brisbane]
[Image shows close up of female school student]
Female student: Today was actually really, really fun.
[Image changes to show different female school student]
Female student: Our class went in and we did a tour of the Endeavour, a replica.
[Images flash through educator on board HMB Endeavour holding an iPad, school students sitting at a desk in front of a laptop, close up of male school student]
Male student: It was all live, there was a tour guide there showing us around. We could see her and from our laptops we could control what we were looking at.
[Image shows female school student]
Female student: She took us around, asked us questions.
[Image changes to show different female school student]
Female student: And then she could turn around the tablet and focus it on different things and so we could zoom in a bit more.
[Image shows inside of HMB Endeavour]
[Image changes to show Dennis Frousheger, CSIRO]
Dennis Frousheger: The Panomersive system is a system to enable people to do remote tours of the Endeavour.
[Image shows educator using iPad as a camera]
So it uses panoramic cameras that enable the remote visitors to look all around them while at the same time the educator who’s leading their experience has an iPad that enables them to directly talk to the visitors and interact with the visitors.
[Image shows Anne Doran, Education Officer, Australian National Maritime Museum]
Anne Doran: Some of the cool things about this project is the fact that not every person feels comfortable going below.
[Image shows school students sitting at desk in front of laptop]
But also that fact that some people live a long way away from Sydney, not everybody lives in Sydney.
[Image shows Dennis Frousheger, CSIRO]
[Images flash through various views of HMB Endeavour with educator holding iPad and talking to some students via video]
Dennis Frousheger: One of the strengths of the system is really the interactivity between the educator and the students. They can see the educator and the educator can see and hear them. They can look around, look around themselves like they would when they’re actually here on the ship while at the same time hearing and talking to the educator.
[Image shows Anne Doran, Education Officer, Australian National Maritime Museum inside HMB Endeavour using iPad to talk to students via video]
Anne Doran: Being able to ask them questions and have that immediate feedback yes they are listening or they can actually answer the questions straight away means that I know that the students are actually engaged in the lesson.
[Images flash through various views of HMB Endeavour]
Basically we’re sitting on a replica of an 18th century ship. First thing I’m going to show you, and you may be able to see it on your Panomersive camera, is the ship’s bell.
[Image shows school students sitting at desk in front of laptop]
Female student: We wanted to know if the replica does actual trips?
[Image shows Anne Doran walking around inside HMB Endeavour with iPad]
Anne Doran: Yes it does and we’re actually coming to Brisbane in October.
[Image shows male school student]
Male student: It was an amazing experience really, I’ve never really seen anything like this before.
[Image shows female school student]
Female student: She’d be like oh and if you look over here, and then you could actually look over there, it was like actually being on the ship.
[Image shows Anne Doran, Education Officer, Australian National Maritime Museum on board HMB Endeavour]
[Images flash through various views of HMB Endeavour]
Anne Doran: Being a national museum based in Sydney means that we need to actually look at stories from all around Australia and we need to share those stories with people from all around Australia. So this is a fantastic way of sharing this wonderful ship with people from all across Australia and potentially even internationally.
[Image shows Dennis Frousheger, CSIRO]
Dennis Frousheger: It enables people who don’t have the means, the financial means, the physical means, to do an excursion of the Endeavour to come here and do it in a way that they couldn’t have done in the past.
[Image shows male school student]
Male student: I learned about where they stored the food and how they stored the food.
[Image shows female school student]
Female student: The people on board had to work really hard, they had to have sauerkraut just to keep up their vitamin c.
[Image shows female school student]
Female student: I learn really well when I’m interacting and doing things.
[Image shows school students sitting at desks in front of laptops]
[Image changes to female school student]
Female student: I think it was so much better than having just a normal lesson because having the technology to actually see it it was so much easier to engage.
[Image changes to show different female school student]
Female student: And it was like having a lesson, like an excursion on the ship.
[Music plays while images flash through of students in front of laptop, inside views of the HMB Endeavour, educator on board HMB Endeavour]
[Logos appear on screen: Australian Government Department of Communication, IntoScience, 3P Learning and CSIRO]
[CSIRO logo appears on screen with the words Big ideas start here, www.csiro.au]
CSIRO has worked with the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) to give more Australian students access to the iconic HMB Endeavour using virtual tours.
The historically and scientifically significant vessel moored on Darling Harbour is a replica of the ship that Captain James Cook and famous botanist Joseph Banks sailed to Australia almost 250 years ago.
The ship is visited by over 35,000 school kids each year, but not everyone has the chance to visit the ship in person.
This new technology enables students from all across the country and around the world to experience the HBM Endeavour remotely.
CSIRO developed a way to bring the ship to the classroom to teach kids about science. Lessons include investigating the mechanics of pulley systems, how food was stored onboard and the specimens that Joseph Banks collected on his journey.
The ship has been fitted with live-streaming panoramic cameras so that students can look around the ship as if they were really there.
A museum educator uses a tablet computer to guide the students around the HMB Endeavour and communicate with them along the way.
“The students can look around like they would if they were actually onboard while at the same time hearing and talking to the educator,” said CSIRO Principal Experimental Scientist Gavin Walker.
ANMM educator Anne Doran said that the interactivity of the digital excursion makes it a much more engaging experience for students.
“Being able to ask them questions and have immediate feedback shows that they are listening and answering questions straight away in real time demonstrates that students are engaged in the lesson,” Ms Doran said.
“Being a national museum it’s fabulous that we are now able to share this wonderful ship with students from all around Australia,” she said.
With funding from the Australian Government through the Department of Communications, CSIRO was able to use its technological expertise to bring the HMB Endeavour to life for more Australian students.
Bookings for excursions are now open. Go to the museum’s HMB Endeavour web page for more information, including how to book.
