PIPS – Melbourne Zoo – Y5-8

This Philosophy in Public Spaces (PIPS) event at Melbourne Zoo on 9 September, 2026 is open for Y5-8 students from schools in Victoria.

Students are able to attend for free if they attend a government school and participate through the high-ability program, for which the Department of Education has provided funding for.

Sign up here!

Philosophy in Public Spaces Event for schools for 2022 is open.

This event is for students in Years 5-8 and will take place at Melbourne Museum on the 17th of November 2022. Each school is able to bring 10 students.

PIPS events are events run to stimulate philosophical thinking in students. Between 5 – 12 schools attend each PIPS event and bring 10 students each, then those students are mixed up into groups of 10 and placed with a facilitator. The facilitator is a member of VAPS trained in facilitating philosophical communities of inquiry.

PIPS events are run in locations of cultural significance whereby we have access to thought-provoking material. Students observe a chosen stimulus (artwork, exhibition, show) with their mixed-school group and facilitator, before beginning a philosophical discussion about the ‘big ideas’ present in their stimulus to begin their community of inquiry discussion. The facilitator guides students towards philosophical questioning and thought processes, however, the topic is chosen by the students themselves based on the ideas that the stimulus provoked in them.