19 Aug 2019
During Term 2 this year, Ms Joura travelled overseas as part of her Premier's History Teaching Scholarship. For five weeks she toured Western Australia, Denmark, Sweden, England and Scotland to visit sites that relate to maritime archaeology, meeting with museum professionals and educators along the way.
Ms Joura learnt about the WW2 battle between HMAS Sydney and the German ship HSK Kormoran. One of her highlights was a day trip out to the Houtman Abrolhos Islands where the Dutch ship Batavia was wrecked in 1629.
In Denmark and Sweden she visited sites that relate to the Year 8 Vikings topic. One of her favourite stops along her tour was the Viking ship museum which feature the remains of five Viking ships that date to approximately AD 1040. It is a working museum so they continue to build replica Viking ships and the public can go out sailing which Ms Joura also did!
Ms Joura then met with more experts in the UK, touring around London (making time to visit Platform 9 3/4!) and the south west of England before heading north to York another Viking stronghold, and into Scotland. One of the best things about Scotland was diving in the very far north of the Orkney Islands, to view the scuttled German battleships from WW1. The water was 8 Degrees Celsius and dry suits were a necessity!
Ms Joura returned from her trip full of ideas on how to use maritime archaeology in the classroom. She is currently writing a 3,000 word report on her study tour and has already presented at the state conference for the History Teachers' Association of NSW. In October she will also present at the National Conference of the Australasian Institute of Maritime Archaeology.
How lucky are we to have a history teacher with this incredible wealth of knowledge and experience in the field!