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 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.

In 2023, DATTA Vic and Melbourne Museum collaborated with our participating teachers to create a Bio Communities resource which engages students in regenerative design. 

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

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 an editable PowerPoint, which means teachers and students can adapt it to suit their own context.

• Download Bio Communities editable PowerPoint slides

This resources library can be used by teachers of P-10 Design & Technologies, VCE Product Design & Technologies and VCE Systems Engineering to embed and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures in their classroom teaching. 

ACCESS HERE 

DATTA Vic has a range of Teacher Toolkits on D&T-related themes, including teaching Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Design, Sustainability, Diversity in STEM, VCE PD&T, VCE Systems Engineering, Textiles in Society and Primary Design & Technologies.

TEACHER TOOLKITS

Thinking Outside the Box - The Sustainable Seating Project is a Year 7/8 Unit of Work from Forest Learning and DATTA Vic which investigates the properties and sustainability of cardboard . Using ForestVR 360o videos, students go on virtual excursions to an Australian pine plantation and paper mill to experience the cycle of growing sustainable wood fibre and how it is processed into paperboard. Following the design thinking process, students then investigate, design, produce and evaluate a sustainable seat made from upcycled cardboard.

To celebrate Design & Technologies Week 2023, DATTA Vic published a new resource on each day of the program. They range from simple workshops to engaging units of work. You can download them all at the link below;

·       Introduction to Design

·       The Elements & Principles of Design - Focus on Indigenous Design

·       Invention Trivia Challenge

·       The Design of the Boomerang

·       Design Factor Speed Dating

RESOURCES

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 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.

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.

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

This is a recording from a 2022 Online Teach Meet , which was a partnership between DATTA Vic and the NGV. It explored how myco-cycling can tackle the problem of plastic waste - and how it's happening right here in Melbourne! 

We were joined by Amanda Morgan, founder and Head of Research and Development at the multi-award-winning Fungi Solutions, who shared how their work with this amazing natural organism diverts resources from landfill to sequester carbon, creates new materials and generates economic opportunities.

With an extensive background in prototyping, Amanda now works closely with clients at Fungi Solutions to develop refined mycelium solutions for their products. She brings expertise in innovative social and environmental programs and an enthusiasm for helping others to get involved with cultivating fungi. With initial focus on the development of a targeted recycling program, using the material by-product from the process as circular packaging, Amanda has developed a range of targeted mycelium strains for the remediation of pollutants and the production of Mycomaterials (alternatives to single use plastics, animal by-products and timber milled products). 

A great way to explore the concepts of sustainable and ethical design, professional practice, preferred futures, materials science and technologies in society.

This is a recording of an online information session delivered in September 2022. Bio-Inspired Textiles is a UK-based research project that explores how combining biology, material science and textile design can enhance sustainable and circular practice. Thanks to Professor Veronika Kapsali for giving us permission to share her work.

WATCH HERE

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 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.

In 2021, the group helped to develop Community Connections, a project which will engage your students - individually or collaboratively - in exploring their own community connections through designing and creating a digital product that can be shared with others. This resource offers a specific opportunity to explore Indigenous culture and gives guidance on how to engage with First Nations’ design through the recently published Australian Indigenous Design Charter.

This resources consists of three elements:

Community Connections Student Portfolio Final.pptx

Community Connections Teacher Notes

Design Process Help Videos