Butterfly Adventure: Combining Scicomm and First Nations Knowledge for Early Learners
19 June 2024 at 3:35:00 am
T24 Talk
15 min
Abstract
Butterfly Adventure is a new program offering from Questacon which connects First Nations story, language, and ideas with Western science communication to create an interactive role-play for early learners. This program represents a new direction for Questacon and is the culmination of years of organisation-wide investment in relationship-building with the Ngunnawal people, particularly the Bell family. This case study will explore three key ideas. Firstly, we will discuss how the use of role-play builds positive STEM identities in early learners, and why this is important. Secondly, we will show how connecting themes in First Nations story, language, and ideas to science knowledge provides children with a broader context for science information. Finally, we will explore how creating meaningful relationships with local First Nations people is an essential foundation to creating programs like Butterfly Adventure.
Presenter/s
Relevance to conference themes
The theme of the conference, Support, Connect, Grow, directly relates to the content of this work. Butterfly Adventure, which engages directly with the local Ngunnawal story of Mununja the Butterfly, is a useful case study of how to start to respectfully connect Indigenous knowledge with Western science communication. Hopefully, it can act as an inspiration for others to engage with First Nations people to encourage the incorporation of their story and knowledge as part of general science communication practice in Australia.
This talk will show participants the importance of connecting with First Nations communities, and that allowing these relationships to grow will support a richer, more meaningful science communication practice.