The Creative Futures Annual Design Workshop is a teacher education program delivered in partnership between Melbourne Museum and DATTA Vic and funded by Creative Futures.

Each year, teachers come together at Melbourne Museum for a unique professional learning experience on using museum collections and design thinking practices to enrich schools-based design education.

They also contribute to the development of new Design & Technologies classroom resources based on museum collections.

2024 Resource - Our Town 2050

In late 2024, Melbourne Museum & DATTA Vic took the Creative Futures Annual Design Workshop on the road to Shepparton.  In a full-day workshop for local educators hosted by Greater Shepparton Secondary College, we explored how teachers could develop a speculative design project for their classes which is based on their unique needs and interests as rural & regional schools.

The day resulted in a new resource - Our Town 2050 - which can be used by teachers wherever they are as a way to engage their students in the design process, learning about the past and speculative thinking, all in the context of their own communities.

• Download Our Town 2050 editable slides, to be used as a student portfolio for this project.

Thanks to the educators who took part in our 2024 Shepparton workshop and collaborated with us to develop this resource;

• Anthony McConnell, Cobram Anglican Grammar School
• Anthony Campbell, Assumption College Kilmore
• Claire Garnham, Greater Shepparton Secondary College
• Gabriella Calandro, Shepparton Art Museum
• Julieann Shanahan, Notre Dame College

• Robbie Bechaz, Nathalia Secondary College
• Roman Schroder, Upwey High School
• Ross Kelly, Wangaratta High School
• Sam Devenish, Greater Shepparton High School

2024 Resource - Future Eco Fashion

2024's Creative Future's Design Education Workshop had a hands-on focus as we took a deep dive into prototyping as a way to generate ideas, tell stories and imagine future artifacts.

Our group started with an exploration to the Mini Mega Model Museum exhibition, and then got the amazing opportunity to visit behind the scenes in the preparators' workshop. This is where all exhibition models are made, and where animal specimens are treated to be ready for storage or display.  Let's just say we needed a stronger stomach than usual for this workshop!

After an afternoon of design sprints and prototyping, we ended up with a resource that focused on the global problem of fast fashion.  You can use this set of slides to get your students exploring how to transform waste materials and locally grown resources into sustainable fashion.

• Download Future Eco Fashion editable PowerPoint slides , to be used as a student portfolio for this project.

And if you're looking for some design inspiration, check out the amazing items in Museums Victoria online fashion collections HERE.

Thanks to the educators who took part in our 2024 Melbourne Museum workshop and collaborated with us to develop this resource;

• Anna Wylie, Deakin University
• Benedicte Imbert, McLelland College
• Daniel Matic, Fountain Gate Secondary College
• Ellie Lightbody, Kingswood College
• Francesca Lennie, Zoos Victoria
• Hanna Kim, Holocaust Museum
• Hayley Rivers, Catholic Regional College, North Keilor

• Heather Clark, Home Education Network
• Jennifer Gilbert Nguyen, Fountain Gate Secondary College
• John Cripps Clark, Deakin University
• Lin Vartan, Carey Baptist Grammar School
• Michelle Magalona, Suzanne Cory High School
• Sarah Raynor, Chaffey Secondary College
• Roman Schroder, Upwey High School

2023 Resource - Bio Communities

How can we design new, sustainable neighborhoods based on principles of Bio Communities?

In 2023, DATTA Vic and Melbourne Museum collaborated with our participating teachers to create a Bio Communities resource which engages students in regenerative design.  This was based on the groups experience of exploring a number of nature-based exhibitions at Melbourne Museum, including Bugs Alive!, the Gandel Gondwana Garden and the Milarri Garden Trail. This resource is available as a PDF but also as an editable Powerpoint, which means teachers and students can adapt it to suit their own context.

• Download Bio Communities editable PowerPoint slides , to be used as a student portfolio for this project.

Thanks to the fantastic group of educators who participated in our 2023 workshop and helped to create this free student resource:

• Carmel Scarso, Onyx Design Group
• Elissa Michell, Whittlesea Tech School
• Felicity Rogerson, Christian College Highton
• Kathleen Earle, Buchan Primary School
• Maree Jones, St Joseph's College Mildura
• Misa Fujii, Whittlesea Tech School

• Nicola Hardy, RMIT University
• Priya Cardinaletti, St John's Regional College Dandenong
• Roman Schroder, Upwey High School
• Sabrina Fernando, Whittlesea Tech School
• Ubaldino Mantelli, Geelong High School

In 2022, our participating teachers helped to produce a new speculative design resource called Melbourne's Future Story. This is a digital portfolio that helps students explore the history of Melbourne’s story and then generate new and innovative ideas for how it can sustainably evolve in the future in the areas of transport, energy and community.

This resource is available as a PDF but also as an editable Google Slide doc, which means teachers can adapt it to suit their own context. It should be used as a student portfolio for this project.

• Download Melbourne's Future Story - PDF Portfolio
• Download Melbourne's Future Story - editable Google Slide doc