Digital Classroom | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Digital Classroom

Explore Australia's history at the National Library's Digital Classroom, aligned with the Australian Curriculum. With over 10 million items, we support diverse learning styles, fostering inquiry-based learning for students to analyse sources and draw conclusions about the Australian story.
Showing 1 - 12 of 40 results
painting of small house in the Australian bush

Atkinson, Robert, 1863-1896. (1889). Sheedy's Castle, Balmoral Beach [picture] / Robt. Atkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135211215

A Nation Imagined: The artists of the Picturesque Atlas

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Visual Arts for Year 9 and 10 students. It adopts an inquiry approach to develop students’ skills as art historians.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
sketch of a man smoking a pipe

Frank Mahony, [Self-portrait] [picture] / F.P.M., 1900, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136050024

Personalities

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and its principal Sydney-based artists - Julian Ashton, A. Henry Fullwood and Frank Mahony - transformed the way settler colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
colour painting of man with pack and billy can

Mahony, Frank, 1862-1916. (1896). Henry Lawson in 1896 [picture] / F.P. Mahony. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136254778

Illustration and black-and-white art

Topic

The publication of the Picturesque Atlas was situated within a ‘golden age’ of illustration: the great global explosion of mass-produced images that occurred between 1850 and 1900 with the rise of the illustrated press.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
painting of small house in the Australian bush

Atkinson, Robert, 1863-1896. (1889). Sheedy's Castle, Balmoral Beach [picture] / Robt. Atkinson. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135211215

Australian impressionism

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia helped to establish the iconography of Australian impressionism, often also identified as the Heidelberg School.

Arts
Year 9
Year 10
Art, drawing and illustration
painting of Australian bush landscape

Eugene Von Guerard, Source of the Wannon, 1867, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135740687

Timeline of Australian innovations

Topic

Australians have a talent for ingenuity and creative thinking. From ancient times, Australians have used the materials around them to develop unique and practical tools to help them live and prosper.

Science
Year 9
Science and technology
black and white photograph of Sir Howard Florey

Australian News and Information Bureau. [Portrait of Howard Florey] [picture] / [Australian News and Information Bureau]. nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136743351

Oral history: Sir Howard Florey

Topic

Sir Howard Florey was an Australian medical scientist.

Science
Year 9
Science and technology
photo of a woman standing against a purple background

Philip Gostelow, Professor Fiona Stanley at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Subiaco, Perth, 21 August 2013, 2013, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153312966

Oral history: Professor Fiona Stanley

Topic

Professor Fiona Stanley is an Australian paediatrician and epidemiologist who is best known for her work linking deficiencies of folic acid in pregnant women with birth defects - specifically, spina bifida and related conditions.

Science
Year 9
Science and technology
black and white photograph of a man lecturing at a lecturn

John Aloysius Mulligan, Sir Mark Oliphant lecturing at the University of Sydney, 1 September 1970, 1970, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-145323842

Oral history: Sir Mark Oliphant

Topic

Sir Mark Oliphant was an Australian physicist who is known for his work in nuclear physics and radar, and, later, for becoming governor of South Australia.

Science
Year 9
Science and technology
photograph of Nancy Millis

Damian McDonald, Portrait of Nancy Millis, 1999, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-144499251

Oral history: Emeritus Professor Nancy Millis

Topic

Professor Nancy Millis was an Australian microbiologist who worked and studied microbial growth and the fermentation process.

Science
Year 9
Science and technology
A marathon runner smiles and holds his fists up as he runs

Michael Jensen, Robert de Castella winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games Marathon, Brisbane, 1982, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136995791

Sport and Australian culture

Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education for Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 students. Students will engage with a rich selection of sources and be challenged to draw their own conclusions about the role of sport in Australia’s culture and history.

Health
Humanities
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Sport and recreation
A large poster showing a naked man preparing to throw a discus. Behind him is a Union Jack on a green background. There is a red strip along the bottom of the page with the words "Australia's 150th Anniversary Celebrations. Sydney 1938". In smaller writing next to the man is text saying "British Empire Games 5 to 12 Feb 1938

Australian National Travel Association, Australia's 150th Anniversary celebrations, Sydney, 1938 : British Empire Games 5-12 Feb. 1938, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135690109

The Commonwealth Games

Topic

The first recorded games between Empire athletes coincided with the coronation of King George V in 1911.

Health
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Sport and recreation
A gold medal standing upright on a white cotton surface. The medal shows a figure holding a trumped and a wine amphorae. Behind the figure is a bust on a stand. In raised lettering around the edge of the medal are the words 'Olympiska Spelen Stockholm' The year '1912' is also present.

Olympic gold medal won by Miss Fanny Durack at Stockholm, 1912, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139311257

Women in sport

Topic

Today, at the Commonwealth Games, Olympic Games, tennis tournaments and a host of other sporting events, men and women can compete at elite levels. But this has not always been the case for sports and recreational physical pursuits.

Health
Humanities
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Sport and recreation

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