Knowledgeable Object Symposium 2023

Last week, Chau Chak Wing Museum and the University of Sydney Library hosted The Knowledgeable Objectsymposium in partnership with AMaGA NSW. Aimed at connecting object-based learning professionals, attendees were mainly educators working across primary, secondary, or tertiary sectors. Topics focused on teaching andlearning with objects in classrooms, museums, and libraries.

Presentations focused on learning objects specific to their collections. These included teaching about place at the Museum of Sydney through sharing traditional Dharawal techniques and materials for making tools, engaging withexperiences of war by exploring the personal effects of a WWI veteran at the State Library of NSW, using visual artto teach approaches to communication and empathy to nursing students, and engaging children in hospital withnature using live animals with Georges River Environmental Education Centre.

Leen Rieth, Object Based Learning Coordinator in our Library, discussed how object-based learning can be an opportunity for students to interrogate the values and histories of collections. Object-based learning in the Library has increased undergraduate and community engagement with Rare Books and Special Collections.

Keep an eye out for classes open to staff and the general public in 2024.