Teachers, take a tour with the curators of SLQ’s new exhibitions, Freedom Then, Freedom Now and Don’t Just Count Us, Let Us Count! and explore the many free resources available.

Discover the exhibition themes in deeper detail, and access learning notes and tours that have been specifically developed for Year 10 and Senior English 2 students.

Places are limited so bookings are essential.

Image: Anti-bikie law protest, Brisbane, 1 Dec 2013, Hamish Cairns, John Oxley Library, SLQ.

Story Lab returns with another electrifying program of workshops that will both inspire your students’ thinking and supercharge their creativity in a variety of digital modes.

Workshops are fully supervised. All materials are supplied and different age groups and learning styles are catered for.

Full details coming soon. Register your interest with lyps@slq.qld.gov.au to find out more.

Image: Kinetic sculptures workshops at Story Lab, January 2017.

Explore the Digital Futures Lab — an immersive space designed to make you think, and maybe even look twice — with free 30-minute guided tours.

Stay on to try your hand at awesome cutting edge technologies such as Tilt Brush, or learn how to control a computer with your mind. Discover smart cities and digital bodies, real life robots and risky algorithms.

Make the most of your visit by downloading the learning notes.

Image: Experience virtual reality in the Digital Futures Lab. Photo by Josef Ruckli.

Join the Seqwater education team for an interactive session all about water. Learn about the water cycle, water uses and the quantity and quality of Australia’s water resources compared with those in other continents.

Play games to learn about the role of Seqwater and finish the session off with a visit to the Digital Futures Lab for a guided hands-on experience using the Seqwater resources, water globe, and augmented reality sandpit.

Image: Get hands on with Seqwater’s augmented reality sandpit. Photo by Josef Ruckli.

Entries for the 2017 Anzac Indigenous Cultural Study Tour are now open to all eligible students in Years 9–12. The tour encourages young Indigenous Queenslanders to better understand the contribution of Indigenous service personnel to the Anzac legacy and share their knowledge with others.

The prize covers study tour expenses including travel, insurance, accommodation and meals. Students will undertake research on service personnel and attend a research workshop at SLQ prior to visiting key sites and memorials in Australia and New Zealand.

Refer to the student application pack for full entry details and requirements.

Image: Page 26 (detail) of the Queenslander Pictorial, supplement to The Queenslander, 28 July 1917, John Oxley Library, SLQ.

SLQ hosted eight young historians for a two-day research workshop, concentrating on First World War soldiers. The workshop prepared students for their upcoming overseas trip, as part of the 2017 Premier’s Anzac Prize.

One of the students had great success coding a Trove exhibition titled Three Anzacs, which generated much interest among the other students along with history related social media communities as a way to document and showcase the research.

Three Anzacs demonstrated how resources collected using Trove lists can be reused through the Trove API, to create new interfaces and applications.

View the online exhibition here.

Image: 2017 Young Historians at the SLQ research workshop, part of Q ANZAC 100: Memories for a New Generation, proudly supported by the Queensland Government.

Commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, a significant day when Australians voted for constitutional change to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples  in the Australian census.

Watch the live stream of the opening proceedings which include a Welcome to Country by songwoman Maroochy Barambah and keynote address by Dr Chelsea Bond.

Chelsea will share a brief history on the Referendum, what it did for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Chelsea’s personal experiences and how this event has impacted her family.

Image: Dr Chelsea Bond.

From citizenship, censorship and the collective good to marriage, miniskirts and mortgages — what are the freedoms that Queenslanders take for granted?

Freedom Then, Freedom Now is an intriguing journey into our recent past, exploring the freedoms enjoyed and restricted in Queensland and examining what happens when collective good intersects with individual rights.

This exhibition draws on the extensive collections of SLQ to reminisce, reflect, and explore freedoms won and lost in Queensland. Learning notes are coming soon.

Image: Allan Moir cartoons 1973–1998, 'Free speech is a threat to liberty' (detail), John Oxley Library, SLQ.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 Premier’s Anzac Prize. Eight Queensland students have been awarded a trip of a lifetime to experience the Anzac tradition first hand.

The students and two teacher chaperones from various schools around Queensland departed for London on 11 April ready to visit key sites of historical importance to Australians during the First and Second World Wars, before attending the Dawn Service at Villers Bretonneux in France on Anzac Day.

You can follow their journey online.

Image: 2017 Young Historians and teacher chaperones visiting SLQ for a research workshop.

Word Play, UPLIT’s annual education program for young readers, storytellers and illustrators from Prep to Year 12, returns as part of Brisbane Writers Festival this September!

Book lovers of all ages will be inspired during sessions with their favourite authors, and through the discovery of the best new literary voices.

The Word Play program is on sale from Wednesday 24 May. Sign up to the UPLIT enewsletter to stay up-to-date.

Image: Excited young readers at Word Play 2016. Photo by Emerson Domingo Jr.

Ten years ago, students of the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) researched, wrote and performed a stage show called Reflections: Referendum 40 years and to the future at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC).

The show was a creative response to the 1967 Referendum, when Australians voted overwhelmingly to amend the constitution to include Aboriginal people in the census and allow the Commonwealth to create laws for them.

Learn about this historic milestone through the eyes of ACPA students as they reflect on the creative process, research and the performance which shaped who they are today and impacted their understanding of freedoms as Australian Indigenous people.

Learning notes coming soon.

Image: ACPA alumni Ronald Cora, 2017. Photo by Jo-Anne Driessens.

Did you know that our design thinking methodology has been included in the new Design Syllabus for high schools?

Design Minds exists to engage with the community and enable access to design thinking resources in education. It is a digital space for sharing resources, articles and toolkits by partnering with real world designers, businesses and the broader community.

Design thinking is a process that builds the capabilities of creative 21st century citizens. Our design thinking methodology can be used within existing education and learning benchmarks and consists of the following phases: inquire, ideate, implement.

Download a teacher toolkit now to get started with design thinking, empathy, school and community partnerships, design experiments and more.

Image: Design thinking at work,

The Young Writers Camp took place at SLQ earlier this month, with 20 15–17 year-olds hailing from eight council regions (including Rockhampton and Gladstone) coming together for three intensive days of writing, creativity, and collaboration.

The program facilitated a rich and affirming creative experience for these emerging young writers through workshops that developed skills, expanded creative potential, and identified professional pathways. Thank you to the many educators who passed on the Young Writers Camp callout to their students.

Image: Young Writers Camp 2017 alumni.

To mark the centenary of the First World War, SLQ invites schools to contribute images and videos of their commemorative events to the Anzac Day Today collection on the Q ANZAC 100 Historypin hub.

Share your school’s story, and be part of this digital legacy for future generations. For more information on the project, visit the Q ANZAC 100: Memories for a New Generation website or email discovery@slq.qld.gov.au.

Part of Q ANZAC 100: Memories for a New Generation, proudly supported by the Queensland Government.

Image: Anzac commemorations at Milton State School.