Bright idea

Where can you hold your field trips/geographical experiences?
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in South Kensington is a great place to hold a field trip/geographical experience for pupils. The RGS has started to run workshops using their brilliant resources and personnel. For example, you can book onto a workshop entitled ‘Climbing Everest’, which will enhance any work on mountain environments with real experiences.

For the Everest workshop the class was divided into four groups and each person in the group was given a specific responsibility: communications director, head sherpa, expedition doctor and so on. Paul Deegan, who climbed Everest earlier in the year, briefed the groups using photos of his ascent and the pupils were then put to task to plan their own ascent of the mountain.

The pupils used the internet to find out about the weather conditions, risks of altitude sickness and many other things. They were also shown the type of equipment that they would need to make an ascent. Paul demonstrated all the kit he had taken up Everest as well as the food and cooking supplies. It was fascinating and the pupils were hooked.

The groups then presented their plan as to how they would attempt the climb, collating all the information that they had researched. The pupils engaged fully with their roles and presented the information admirably. Paul assessed each group’s presentation and awarded points for leadership, organisation and teamwork. Finally, the pupils were shown some of the equipment that Hilary and Tensing took with them for the successful first ascent of Everest in 1953.

We all came away from the RGS richer – it had been a great experience for us all. This is a venue right on our doorstep in Fulham. Local geographical associations can provide details of events and venues around the country.
[Tessa Willy]

   Bright idea (all key stages)

If you visit the same area each year for fieldwork, set up particular points where you can take digital photos or a digital video panorama each time you visit. In this way, you can build up a digital archive of change in the area over time.
[Stephen Smith, King Edward VI Grammar School, Essex]

   Bright idea

A combined year 1/2 class worked in groups to represent the school and its grounds as a sketch map. The teacher introduced the lesson on the carpet with the children sitting in a circle. She showed the children a sketch map she had drawn of an area of the school grounds and asked the children if they could recognise the features of the school that were shown. She then led a discussion about what she had included in the sketch, and what she had left out, and outlined the steps she went through to make the sketch.

The children were then given a worksheet upon which they would create a sketch. They worked in their normal work groups and an adult supervised each group. The groups had ten minutes exploring the school site with their teacher or classroom assistant to choose a secret location, and then individually they all create field sketches of that place. On completion of the sketch, they returned to the classroom and added details about the smells, textures and sounds in the area. Some children wrote these details in words, others used symbols.

In the plenary session, the children sat in a circle and one group at a time showed their field sketches to the rest of the class. The children viewing the sketches were encouraged to justify the location of the sketch that they proposed, and the teacher used the sketches to prompt discussion about the important features in the school grounds.
[Joanna Lawrence]

   Bright idea for key stage 1

A texture trail
Create a texture trail in the school grounds or within the school. Produce a map, including at a number of points small squares of rubbings which have been made from different materials, such as patterned glass, the bark of a tree. The children work in pairs or small groups to follow the route and annotate their map, drawing and/or labelling it with the feature from which each rubbing has come. They can be supplied with paper and wax crayons if they want to check the rubbings.

   Bright idea for key stages 1 and 2

Using building sites in work on the local area

• Approach a construction company working in the local area, perhaps on a new housing development, to ask whether children can visit the site.
• Providing that safety is not an issue, and that health and safety regulations are complied with, firms are often keen to be seen to be working with the local community: the children's questions will be answered and photographs of the class, all wearing hard hats, will appear in the local newspaper!

Key stage 1

• Before the visit children decide on questions they would like to ask, such as what are the houses going to look like?
• On the site, they sketch houses in various stages of completion and back in the classroom sequence their drawings.
• The children's locate their sketches and photographs on a large plan of the site.

The activity can link with QCA/DfES scheme of work unit 1 'Around our school - the local area'.

Key stage 2

• The children’s questions may focus more on improving the environment, eg how have the houses have been built to save energy? and how are they trying to make the site look attractive?

The activity can link with QCA/DfES scheme of work unit 6 'Investigating our local area' and unit 8 'Improving the environment'.

   Bright idea for key stage 2

Using a guidebook format to report fieldwork
A year 3 class in a Peak District village school reported the results of their fieldwork enquiries by creating a guidebook for visitors. The teacher provided examples of similar guidebooks. The children discussed content and structure. After recapping the human features of the locality, the sections of the guidebook were agreed. Some children created a paper version of the guidebook, while others used word-processing software. They were able (with support) to incorporate appropriate digital images and text to represent the village.
In the plenary session, the children presented their guidebooks to the rest of the class.
[Heather Angus, Hope Primary School, Derbyshire]

   Bright idea for key stage 2

Using video to compare places
Year 6 children made a seven-minute video film to illustrate how people had managed the environment in a Yorkshire village. The teacher planned a walking tour around the village which linked important sites of environmental management, including the allotments, a new housing estate and farming land use. The children described the features of each site and explained the potential threats to the environment at each site. The video was shown to the whole class as part of a unit of work linking the village in Yorkshire with a village in China, which has been visited by the teacher.
[Susan Holling]

   Bright idea for key stage 2

Planning a school concert in the Botanical Gardens
After a field visit to the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, year 6 children drew up a plan for a school musical concert in the grounds of the gardens. The outcomes of this decision-making exercise were a map (drawn to scale) showing the location of the stage, toilets, access points and environmentally sensitive areas, and a report identifying and addressing the issues involved in holding a concert in the gardens. To support the children, the teacher created an interactive CD-ROM resource to help them develop the geographical skills they would need to create their plan. The CD-ROM also raised some of the issues they would need to address, eg car parking and marquee location.
[Ashley Staniforth, Abbey Lane School, Sheffield]

   Bright idea for key stage 2

Time travellers
Focus on the age of buildings observed during fieldwork by posing the following questions:

• What is the newest building you can see?
• What is the oldest building you can see?
• What evidence do you have for your answers?
• Why are the old buildings still here?
• Why are new buildings being built?

Details of old and new listed buildings and redevelopment priorities are often available from the relevant local planning authority.

   Bright idea for key stage 2

Sounds of the city
Sit down with your group (on convenient street furniture) in a pedestrianised area of the fieldwork location. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds of the city. Tape record the sounds and later categorise them into:

• people sounds
• traffic sounds
• echoes
• animals
• sounds from buildings
• Other sounds.

Evidence from these sound categories can be used as a creative way of describing then attempting to explain land use in the area.

   Bright idea for key stage 2

Imagine all the people
Encourage your class to be people watchers for part of a field visit. How might the different people you see feel about being in the village, town or city? After the fieldwork ask the children to place speech bubbles on photographs that you have collected to illustrate people's feelings. Collect photographs of people in the following categories:

• very young people
• very old people
• people who are shopping
• people who work in the buildings
• people who work outside
  

   Bright idea for key stage 2

What’s the storey?
Investigate how patterns are formed by people's use of different floors in buildings on a street in the locality. Children can collect information to answer the following questions:

• How do people use the space below your feet?
• The pavement?
• The ground floor?
• First floor?
• Second floor?
• Third floor?
• And so on …

The data can be presented back at school in the form of a frieze on the classroom wall. Alternatively you can make a panoramic photograph by using the appropriate settings on a digital or APS camera, and use the photograph as a basis for the display.

More developed ideas

Fieldwork