Visiting the Islamic Museum

By Cayenne Lim 7M2

Throughout Term 3 and 4, the Year 7 classes have taken turns going to the Islamic Museum as part of the Social World curriculum. Although I’m sure every student had slightly different experience, I personally thought the excursion was really educational (but maybe also a great experience to just get out of the Lyceum).

We started off with heading into the city and from the city we went to the Islamic Museum in Thornbury. My first thought of the Islamic Museum was, ‘Why do we need to go out in the middle of nowhere when we could just get someone who is Muslim to come in to speak to us?’. But as I stepped inside, I realised that there was a lot of effort put in to make this museum and this was made to educate us more about the religion of Islam. We listened to a staff member called Sherene who talked about stereotypes, her personal experiences and some of the Islamic practices. I must say, she was quite funny and interactive. After that we broke off into our class groups and we did a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt engaged us deeply and made us read and look at the displays.

At the end of the day, we returned back to the city and back to school. This excursion really changed my views on Muslims and filled those gaps in my knowledge. Things I assumed were true or false were either confirmed or rejected by Sherene who was really open to lots of questions because they helped us understand the Islamic faith.

Last but definitely not least, I think everyone of the Year 7’s would like to thank the Social World teachers who organised this educational opportunity and those who came to supervise (and maybe learn themselves too).