Taronga Education

14/10/2025

🌟 2025 TARONGA ENRICHMENT DESIGN COMPETITION WINNERS! 🌟

Last term, the Taronga Education team ran our annual STEM Enrichment Design Competition, challenging students to design creative enrichment items for Meerkats and Yellow-bellied Gliders. We received an incredible range of innovative entries, making it no easy task for our judging panel!

We’re thrilled to announce our 2025 winners:

🐾 Michael from St Aloysius Catholic Primary School, Cronulla: Winner for the Meerkat Enrichment!
The judges loved Michael’s clever interactive see-saw design, which encourages play and problem-solving while keeping our meerkats active and engaged.

🪶 Darcy from St Gregory’s College, Campbelltown: Winner for the Yellow-bellied Glider Enrichment!
Darcy impressed the judges with a naturalistic design featuring a 3D-printed feeder that can be easily added or removed for cleaning, combining creativity, functionality, and animal care.

Both students showed outstanding design thinking and an impressive understanding of animal behaviour and welfare. We can’t wait to welcome their classes to Taronga Zoo Sydney to see their enrichment devices in action with the animals!

👏 Congratulations, Michael and Darcy, and thank you to all the schools and students who participated this year!

25/08/2025

Two of our Educators went on a week long Regional Teaching Tour! Here’s one of the schools we visited!

10/08/2025

It’s Science Week!

Whether you're visiting the zoo or staying at school to ‘decode the universe’ with your students, we've got you covered!

Our website has resources designed for both occasions, and we were fortunate enough to grab some two minute interviews with our scientists, sharing their latest research and how it helps them decode the living world.

We’d love to hear about you doing some of these activities with your class!

The Taronga Education Team are really excited to support teachers by providing free resources for Science Week 2025.

23/06/2025

🎉 Celebrate NAIDOC Week with Taronga! 🎉
We’re proud to present a FREE digital performance of Animals of the Dreaming, featuring beloved Gamillaraay Elder Uncle Col Hardy OAM 🖤💛❤️
🎶 Join us as Uncle Col shares powerful stories of Country, Culture, and the Dreaming through music — paired with live animal presentations from our Taronga Education Team! 🐨🦉🐍
📅 Don’t miss this special opportunity to bring NAIDOC Live celebrations into your classroom on Monday July 28, 1:00-2:00pm.
🔗 Register now and join us live: https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/naidoc-week
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15/10/2024

⭐️2024 TARONGA ENRICHMENT COMPETITION WINNERS⭐️

Last Term the Taronga Education team ran our annual STEM Enrichment Design Competition for the platypus and the dingo. We had some incredible entries again this year which made it very challenging for the judging panel.

We are excited to share with you that Kai from St. Francis de Sales School (Woolooware) created the winning enrichment for the Dingo! The judges thought that the enrichment not only was natural looking but would also pose a challenge for the dingo as it is placed higher up and provided them with a different way of engaging with enrichment.

We were also thrilled for Elizabeth from St. Columba’s Catholic Primary School Leichhardt North who was successful in designing and building the enrichment for Tilly the platypus. The judges loved the natural look of this enrichment as well as the raft for Tilly to engage with.

These two students demonstrated outstanding design thinking in order to develop and build these enrichment devices for the dingo and the platypus. We are looking forward to hosting their classes at Taronga Zoo Sydney to watch their enrichment be placed in with these animals.

Congratulations again Kai and Elizabeth👏👏

17/09/2024

We have been getting some AMAZING STEM Enrichment Competition submissions for this year's design challenge!

Don't forget to submit your designs by FRIDAY 27th SEPTEMBER here:
https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/enrichment-design-competition

05/08/2024

Looking for an engaging and authentic STEM project for your class?

Have your students put their design and production skills to the test by planning and creating a new and exciting enrichment design for one of two animals found at Taronga Zoo- Dingoes and the Platypus.
The winners of this STEM based project will be selected by an expert panel of judge zookeepers and behavioural scientists from Taronga Zoo and have the chance to win a visit to Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo and watch their enrichment go in with one of these animals!

See the website for all the resources and more information!
https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/enrichment-design-competition

25/07/2024

WANT TO BE PART OF OUR FREE DIGITAL NAIDOC EVENT TOMORROW?

Friday 26th July at 1:00pm, come and join Uncle Col and the Taronga Educators for a wonderful Animals of the Dreaming NAIDOC Event.

The live stream will commence automatically at 1:00pm and will run for approximately an hour. You can find the live stream here:
https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/naidoc-week

We look forward to you joining us!

To Celebrate NAIDOC week, the Taronga Education Team are offering a FREE digital live performance of our Animals of the Dreaming program on Friday 26th July from 1:00pm.

24/06/2024

Looking for an engaging NAIDOC event for your students?

To Celebrate NAIDOC week, the Taronga Education Team are offering a FREE digital live performance of our Animals of the Dreaming program on Friday 26th July at 1:00pm.

Come and join Uncle Col and our amazing Educators as they present an engaging experience of storytelling and music. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of unique and wonderful Native Australian animals, such as a frog, possum, lizard, snake, and turtle up close to the camera!

REGISTER HERE: https://taronga.tfaforms.net/50

FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION HERE:
https://taronga.org.au/education/digital-programs-online-resources/naidoc-week

To Celebrate NAIDOC week, the Taronga Education Team are offering a FREE digital live performance of our Animals of the Dreaming program on Friday 26th July from 1:00pm.

17/01/2024

Calling all teachers!

Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo is having a Teachers Day on Thursday 25th January. Bring your family for FREE, and get the opportunity to learn about our educational programs and visit our immersive habitat classrooms, as well as explore the Zoo.

Follow the link below for more details!

Taronga would love to invite all teachers and their family (one extra adult and two children) to enjoy a complimentary day at Taronga Zoo Sydney or Taronga Western Plains Zoo on Friday July 14.

10/10/2023

⭐️Enrichment Design-Highly Commended⭐️

As a follow up to yesterday's winner post, we would like to commend these students on their incredible efforts in our STEM Enrichment Design Competition.

These students, who are both from the same school as the winner, were awarded highly commended for the Sun Bear category:

Ethan and Charlotte from St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School Woolooware

These students were awarded highly commended for the Echidna category:
Leila from St Anthony of Padua Catholic College Austral

and

Matteo from St. Columba’s Catholic Primary School Leichhardt North

These entries were innovative and impressed the judging panel making it challenging to select the winning entries, so we want to congratulate these students on their fantastic work.

We would like to thank all students for their submissions to the 2023 Enrichment Design Competition and encourage you all to participate in the 2024 competition which will be released in Term 3 next year!

09/10/2023

‼️ 2023 ENRICHMENT DESIGN COMPETITION WINNER ALERT ‼️

Last term the Taronga Education Team held their annual STEM Enrichment Design Competition. This year the task was to design and build an enrichment object for either the Sun Bear or the Echidna. This year we had some of the most complex and natural looking enrichment which made it very challenging for the judges.

A huge congratulations for this year's winners:

Kai from St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School Woolooware who won the Sun Bear category. See Kai's design in the first photograph.

and

Allegra from St. Columba’s Catholic Primary School Leichhardt North who won the Echidna category. See Allegra's design in the second photograph.

These two students demonstrated outstanding design thinking in order to develop these interactive and natural looking enrichment objects for the Sun Bear and the Echidna. We are looking forward to hosting the winning classes at Taronga Zoo Sydney this term to see the enrichment items being put to the test by our two species.

Again, a huge congratulations to Kai and Allegra for their brilliant designs. We will also announce our highly commended students over the next week.👏