Collecting to Think Ahead

Suitable for Year Levels 7–10

As a museum, Scienceworks not only has hands-on exhibits to explore science concepts but also collects and displays objects that Museums Victoria has collected over time. These are important to preserve and showcase Victoria’s science and technology history.

The Think Ahead gallery at Scienceworks encourages visitors to think about the future and their involvement in it. The exhibition features past innovations that solved problems in transport, medicine, communication, space travel, music and the environment and gives glimpses of futuristic inventions that could become everyday solutions.

Virtual scavenger hunt!

Download student workbook 5.4MB .pptx file

Looking around the gallery, can you find the objects below in the exhibition? Try picking just two items to look for first and you might need to zoom in and out to see clearly. Or if you’re a Scienceworks regular, see if you can find them all!

You may find all sorts of other interesting objects too. Exhibitions can feature items not in our own Collection that may be on loan from other museums, private collections or may just be set dressings or props.

Go on a virtual tour of Think Ahead

(please note, the gallery has changed a bit since these photos were taken, for example, we’ve added Australia’s first computer CSIRAC! Check out Activity 5 for more details)

How to use the Google maps virtual tour

Find these objects

Wax apple model

Model of electric tram

8 inch floppy disk

Kodak Instamatic 100 camera

Telegraph key

For information on more of the objects on display in Think Ahead:

Visit Museums Victoria Collection website

Further investigation

Pick one of the collection items and read its entry in Collections Online. Be sure to check if there are any linked articles that could give you more clues. Based on this information and your own thinking, work with a partner to try to explain:

What does that invention help us with? or What was the object used for?
List 3 groups of people who might be interested in this object.
If you could ask the creator of this object a question about it, what would it be?
Take a photo of something you have at home that serves a similar purpose.
What do you think this item might look like in the future? You could draw it, make a model out of scrap recycling or use a program like TinkerCAD or Makers Empire to make a 3D design or Marvel program to prototype an app.

See example answers in the student workbook: