Incursions
Travelling overseas with your students isn’t always possible. Through fascinating incursions, we’ll bring our expert knowledge of the world directly to your students, right where they are.
Each incursion we run is carefully designed to suit your students’ learning goals. Whether you’re a school, community group, TAFE, university, training centre, neighbourhood house or something else entirely, our exciting range of topics is sure to meet your students’ learning needs.
Highly experienced presenters
Our passionate presenters have years of experience educating all kinds of students – from those in high school to avid adult learners and special interest groups. Each presenter has lived their subject at length, often firsthand.
Wherever possible, their lessons include artefacts for your students to see and touch. These rare relics and cultural materials engage students’ senses and deepen their understanding, bringing the subject to life in a tactile and immediate way.
Our presenters are:
Educative Thought-provoking Highly engaging Passionate
Flexible locations and lesson durations
Our presenters can teach anywhere – in classrooms, lecture theatres, or out in the field. We run presentations at any time of day and to a length that best suits your students. And because your students’ attention is precious, we tailor each presentation to your exact requirements, ensuring the content complements your curriculum and their learning goals.
Our standard presentations run for 45–60 minutes, including time for questions and discussion. We also offer extended presentations (up to 90 minutes) and can run presentations back-to-back. Why not maximise your students’ learning and book two separate topics for different cohorts?
Incursion topics for students of all ages
Our incursion topics reveal exciting aspects of the Asia-Pacific region’s history, politics, geography and environment. We also offer two essential professional development subjects for teachers.
- Why and how Australia become involved in the Vietnam War
- Where Australian forces were based, fought and died: then and now
- Some of the big issues of Australia’s involvement, including the protest movement, conscription, military tactics, and the disastrous barrier minefield experiment
- Different perspectives to consider when discussing the Vietnam War
- The lead up to the battle
- Australia’s area of control and early strategies: Phuoc Tuy Province
- The Battle of Long Tan: An overview of the battle’s key stages
- Who won the battle? Two differing perspectives and interpretations
- What does the battlefield look like now?
- How is Long Tan Day / Vietnam Veteran’s Day remembered and commemorated today by Vietnamese and Australians?
- French colonial oppression and modernisation
- The influences upon Ho Chi Minh’s early years
- Ho’s quest for Vietnam’s independence
- The West turned a blind eye, while the Communists offered help
- Failed diplomacy and the power vacuum of World War II
- Ho re-takes Vietnam, gives it back to the French, then fights to take it again
- Ho versus the US
- Ho dies, his mausoleum is built, and his legend is immortalised
- Was Ho a community
revolutionary or a staunch Communist? - What do the people of Vietnam think of Ho Chi Minh today?
- How does the West portray Ho’s political career?
- What led France to colonise Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos: Global and regional reasons
- The suppression of the anti-French movement
- Ho Chi Minh and the Communist movement go underground
- The Communists fight back
- The tragic battle of Dien Bien Phu that led to Indochina’s demise
- Epic stories or endurance and heroics from soldiers on both sides of the Dien Bien Phu battlefield
- A tour of the battlefield: Then and now
- The legacy of the French in Indochina today
- Why did the Americans step in to take over from the French?
- Ethnology overview of Vietnam (54 ethnic groups)
- Colourful tribes and their stunning costumes and hand-crafted jewellery
- Traditional housing and age-old farming practices
- Adjusting to the modern world: benefits and trade-offs
- Exquisite arts and handicrafts: textiles, embroidery and silverwares
- The resurgence of hill tribe culture in mainstream society and tourism
- The French see the importance of the Mekong as a trading route 1866-68
- Six countries share the river: who has the rights to the water?
- The Mekong Commission is established in 1995
- Issues of sustainability and development: environmental impacts
- Human conflict along the Mekong
- China’s push for development and the impacts downstream
- Cambodia and Vietnam as the most impacted: the Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong Delta
- What will be the outcome? Predictions?
- The tiger is the apex predator in the jungle
- Political will, a strategic plan and environmental warriors: what can happen?
- Managing national parks: human-animal conflict and habitat fragmentation
- Providing employment and education with incentives
- Safaris and ethical tourism ventures
- Satpura Tiger Reserve: a case study
- Marketing and tiger territory
- The Soviet Union chooses Ukraine as the location of the 9th Atomic City, 1970
- The new nuclear city named Pripyat is built close to the ancient village of Chernobyl
- Ten nuclear reactors and the town of Pripyat are built simultaneously
- The Communist state allocation of resources in line with its long-term Cold War philosophy
- Teaching Cold War ideology and socialist theory in schools
- 3-Tiered indoctrination organisations are compulsory in schools
- The Civil Defence class: mandatory for senior school students
- Symbolism, reinforcement, and social obligation are constantly reinforced
- Power plant No 4 explodes on 26 April, 1986: abandonment of Pripyat and all its schools
- More than 35 years on, the abandoned schools and the old Soviet-era education system are frozen in time
- Photos from then and now
- Methods used to control the population (technology, surveillance, employment)
- The media, television programs and public posters
- Ideology that sets the Kim dynasty as mythical
- Prisons, travel permits, passports and borders
- North Koreans working overseas: expectations and obligations
- How the State controls foreign tourism
- Overview of Korean politics and war from World War II until the Korean War
- The dynasty of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un
- North Korea today: isolation, self-sufficiency, political ideology
- Indoctrination, State-controlled media, citizens of the State
- Elite schools and suburban schools
- Key subjects taught in schools
- North Korea’s perspective of history
- How the education system reflects the ideology of the State
- Student aspirations within the realm of possibility
- Based on meetings with local students, what they have to say
- Who was Pol Pot (Saloth Sar)?
- Pol’s critical years in France (1949-53) and his turn towards revolutionary ideology
- Spreading the ideology throughout the Cambodian countryside
- Fighting to power: fighting against the Lon Nol Regime
- Taking control and implementing a brutal regime: Democratic Kampuchea (DK)
- Self-paranoia, torture prisons, targeting the Vietnamese
- The demise of the Khmer Rouge and Pol flees to the western border of Thailand
- Pol Pot dies in 1998: the regime collapses
- More unanswered questions
- Interviews with surviving former leading Khmer Rouge diplomats, surgeons, army generals and torturers
- Interviews with victims, tortured prison survivors and refugees who escaped
- Were the perpetrators victims in their own regime? Examples
- How do victims see perpetrators? Examples
- Bringing victims and perpetrators together
- How does history record the Khmer Rouge?
- Bou Meng the artist, joins the Khmer Rouge
- He is imprisoned in Tuol Sleng Prison (S21) and tortured
- Bou is offered a chance to survive by painting Communist images
- Bou’s harrowing time in prison
- Bou escapes on the last day of the prison’s operation
- Bou dedicates the rest of his life to telling stories and painting scenes depicting prison life
- What did Bou think of the Khmer Rouge?
- How the Tuol Sleng Prison operated, based on interviews with prison staff and survivors
- What was the prison’s primary function, and how effective was the prison system?
- Did the prison help achieve the Khmer Rouge’s ideology?
- How were Western prisoners (from Australia, NZ, UK, France, US) treated?
- How Tuol Sleng Prison took ideas from other Communist regimes (East German Stasi)
Professional development incursions for teachers
Here is a list of current incursion topics.
- What is ethical and responsible travel? A matter of perspective
- How can a travel company or a traveller be ethical?
- What should you check to help establish if a travel company is responsible?
- Dark Tourism and Orphanage Tourism explained
- The difference between service-learning and learning-service
- Factors in determining a worthy service-learning project
- Regulations, cultural factors and legalities
- Are service-learning and community projects warranted or beneficial?
- Cultural challenges and unintended impacts in visiting hill tribes or rural communities
- Discussion of issues
- Traumatic sites can be confronting to students
- What causes trauma: graphic details, photos, testimonies, museum exhibits, family histories
- What are the signs of trauma in students?
- Methods to minimise stress and anxiety
- School case studies and examples from Vietnam, China and Cambodia
- How to best manage students out in the field, according to more than 20 years’ experience
Testimonial
“Billy transports Australian audiences to other places and times. For 7 years, I have attended and helped organise his presentations in History teaching contexts around Australia. The presentations I have experienced have addressed the Cold War, Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge, Chernobyl, and environments and arts of Asia. Billy has lived and travelled for 30 years in the countries he discusses.”
"He finds 'the stories' that especially engage students, asks thought-provoking questions and can tailor to the curriculum. What Billy offers schools is truly unique."
“He possesses a vast collection of items related to their histories and has become a competent and experienced presenter. He defines terms and concepts clearly and researches further as necessary.”
— Dr Rosalie Triolo, Senior Lecturer in History and Education, Monash University
Delivery modes
Incursions can be delivered to your students face-to-face, or online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
We deliver face-to-face incursions anywhere within Australia. Please note that face-to-face incursions delivered outside Greater Melbourne will incur additional travel expenses, priced on application.
Payments
The cost of a standard length 45–60 minute incursion is $350. If booking a double session or two sessions within the same day, the cost is $600.
Incursion discounts for travellers
Incursions are a fantastic way to enhance students’ knowledge of a subject relevant to your travel destination.
If you have an upcoming tour with Edventure Travel and have booked an information evening, you can add an incursion for the same afternoon/evening at the discounted rate of $250.
Get in touch
Get in touch today to find out more information, request an itinerary or tailor your next trip.
Australia
17 Galtymore Close
Warranwood VIC 3134
Melbourne, Australia
Tel: 61-3-9876 5058
billy@edventuretravel.com.au
Vietnam
7/43/64 Lane
Nguyen Luong Bang Street
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: 84-24-3851 0792
info@edventuretravel.com.au
Cambodia
No 62, Street 134
Sangkat Vealvong, Khan 7 Makara
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tel: 855-23-885391
mia@edventuretravel.com.au