IMPORTANT NOTICE ON MUSEUM CLOSURE

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum of Human Disease will be closed to the general public until further notice. In-person school bookings are still running; click here to make a booking request. We're aiming to begin public sessions in mid-2022 and will make an announcement once we've got firmer details.

 

General public visits

 

T H I N G S  T O  C O N S I D E R

 

  • Some individuals, children and cultural groups may be sensitive to the display of real human tissue. Please consider the suitability of this material when planning your visit.
     
  • No photography permitted inside the Museum
     
  • No food or drinks permitted inside the Museum.

     

 

 


 

 


School Excursions


The Museum of Human Disease welcomes thousands of High School students every year. Our acclaimed programs are syllabus-based and designed in conjunction with UNSW Academics and Pathologists.


W O R K S H E E T S

Once your visit is confirmed, we will send you PDF worksheets to be printed for your students. We offer online worksheets for HSC Biology - Infectious and Non-Infectious Disease and Junior Science programs if this is preferred. This online worksheet is delivered through the Socrative Student application which can be downloaded for iPhones and iPads, Android Devices and Google Devices.

After your visit, you will be sent PDF answer sheets. If your group is using Socrative Student, we will provide an export of their answers, including the group results as a table and individual results for you to provide to your students after their visit.


F O R M A T

Each one of our programs begin with a 20-45 minute presentation, facilitated by our Museum staff. Our presentations are interactive and call on the students to actively participate. These presentations introduce students to the Museum and give them a grounding for the activity that they will be doing in the Museum. 

The rest of each program is spent inside the Museum, where students will engage with our specimen collection either through a quiz, a research task or activity stations. A description of each presentation and activity is below.


Hereditary and Genetic Change - This 25 minute presentation revises the fundamentals of genetics, including nomenclature, transcription, translation and the nature of inheritance. Inside the Museum, the students will work their way through 8 stations which focus on various topics, including inheritance, mutations, CRISPR and DNA plasmid design.
 

Infectious and Non-Infectious Disease - This 45 minute presentation covers three key disease processes, cirrhosis (alcohol and viral hepatitis induced cirrhosis), atherosclerosis (smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise induced) and tuberculosis (bacterial infection). Inside the Museum, students work through 24 multiple choice, short response and extended case-based questions. These questions focus on pathogens, adaptations of pathogens, epidemiology and public health.
 

Depth Study Primer - Our Depth Study Primer program is designed to help your students gather information for their Depth Study assessment, and is flexible enough to complement most assessment types. This 30-minute presentation covers how disease is defined and how we research it. This includes a discussion on why we often use primary sources when researching disease, as well as the present dilemma with unreliable primary literature due to the rise of predatory journals. We also go through some of the technical terms they will come across when researching disease to make sure students are well equipped to conduct their in-depth research of a particular disease in the Museum.

Inside the Museum students are given the freedom to pick a disease, case or organ to begin learning and researching these as they fill out their worksheet. We provide case histories, macroscopic descriptions and pathology knowledge to ensure students find a topic they are genuinely interested in and have the capacity to do some in-depth research into it at the Museum.
 

Australia's Health Priorities - This 45 minute presentation covers topics from the HSC Core 1 – Health Priorities in Australia curriculum, with an emphasis is on lifestyle choices and their effect on the body. In the Museum students work through a range of multiple choice, short response and extended response questions. These questions focus on lifestyle, non-infectious disease and drug use.

Investigating Science - This program covers areas within modules 5,7 and 8 of the Investigating Science Syllabus. In the 30-minute presentation we cover research ethics, including the history, current practices and dilemmas facing research ethics in science, as well as evaluating primary and secondary sources, predatory journals and sample bias and sample size issues in science. Inside the Museum, students work through multiple choice, short response and extended critical thinking questions that are all linked to the syllabus. These questions focus on medical technology, peptic ulcer disease, vaccination, the scientific process, ethics and inflammation.
 

Infectious and Non-Infectious Disease and the History of Medicine - This 45 minute presentation focuses on the changes in medicine through the years. This includes discussions on the use of leeches and trepanning, the evolution of cigarette smoking and our understanding, infectious diseases and hygiene. Inside the Museum students work through a range of multiple choice and short response questions focusing on the history of disease, our changing understanding of disease and hygiene.
 

 



Teacher Professional Development Days

In-person professional development days are currently on hold due to the ongoing pandemic. We have occasional free online teacher PD sessions as a replacement; please sign up to our "Teacher News" mailing list on the front page of this website to hear announcements on this or check the Resources page to find recordings of past sessions.