Enquiry learning

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Enquiry diary
As an ongoing activity through various topics, pupils keep an ‘Enquiry diary’. This should log resources used when considering specific geographical questions and give them a rating of ‘usefulness’ (perhaps marks out of 10). Questions might include:

• where will we find sources (photographs, etc) that will show us what this place is really like?
• what maps are available and how do different maps help us to find out more about a place?

Pupils can then refer to this during subsequent enquiries and this will encourage them to evaluate the quality, reliability and usefulness of resources in terms of helping them to answer specific geographical questions.

An example of such a resource could be a website that identifies journey times and costs of travel when exploring where a place is and how people would get there.
[Wendy Garner, University College, Chester]

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‘Thinking hats’ as a tool for learning
Edward de Bono's 'Thinking hats' is a thinking tool that has been very successful in developing pupils' ability to think broadly and study subjects, topics, phenomena and issues from many different angles. Two Australian primary schools, Cook Primary School (www.cookps.act.edu.au/hats.htm) and Larapinta Primary School (www.schools.nt.edu.au/larapsch/hats.htm), include useful information about the thinking hats on their websites. The Building brands website (www.buildingbrands.com/goodthinking/08_six_thinking_hats.shtml) also discusses the tool.

Each hat represents a different kind of thinking and encourages children to see the same thing from different perspectives. In a role play this is a useful exercise to do before the children get into their various roles or hold a planning meeting.

See also the more developed idea ‘Role play – valuing our place in space’ in key stage 2 ‘Planning matters – medium term planning’ to see how this idea has been used in practice.
[Fran Martin, University College, Worcester]

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Journey sticks – linking geography and art
Journey sticks can be used as a tool to give children an active role in developing locational knowledge. Journey sticks can also lead to longer-term memory about place, encourage creative ways of using and understanding maps and encourage children to use and remember vocabulary associated with mapping and places. There are health and safety and class-management issues that need to be considered with this activity.

The journey sticks are made in the following way (teachers could make one first and then use it as a model for the children).

In the chosen location, each child selects a stick to work with (teachers could gather sticks in advance or use other materials, for example metre sticks or lengths of plastic piping). Children walk along a route in the area, although not everyone has to walk the same route if there are safety concerns. In open but confined outdoor spaces, children should choose their own routes. As they wander around the area, children pick up anything that interests them for whatever reason, and attach it in some way to their stick (using wool, sticky tape, etc) in the order they see it. It might not be possible to pick up some things, so a rubbing, small sketch or digital photograph might do instead.

The ‘Mapsticks’ page of the Home Farm website www.globaleducation.f9.co.uk/activities/mapstick.htm provides an example of journey stick.

Back in the classroom, each child uses their journey stick to create a messy/affective map. The Geographical Association’s website (www.geography.org.uk) provides background information on messy/affective maps.
[Fran Martin, University College, Worcester]

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Earthwalks – linking geography and art
Like journey sticks, earthwalks enable children to respond to the environment at both a cognitive and an affective level. This is a technique often provided at environmental centres. The website of the Bishopswood Environmental Centre in Worcestershire (www.bishopswood.org.uk) and ‘The Centre of the Earth’ section in the Wildlife Trust’s website (www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/urbanwt) contain more information about this.

An earthwalk can be designed to reflect special themes, for example colour and pattern in nature, the seasons or a geographical theme. Earthwalks help children develop observational skills and communicate their observations through speaking and listening to each other. They are also an excellent stimulus for creative writing. Earthwalks are also easy to do in any locality as long as long as there is a natural space somewhere, such as a local park or green space in the school grounds.
[Fran Martin, University College, Worcester]

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Investigating the local area or a contrasting locality
(Links with QCA/DfES scheme of work unit 6 'Investigating our local area' and unit 13 'A contrasting locality'.)

Ask the children to type in the school's postcode on www.upmystreet.com to find information about the local area, such as the distance to the nearest station and the current temperature. They can be set questions, and then ask each other questions. Alternatively, provide a factsheet about different people (eg a young couple, a family with teenagers, an elderly man) who want to move to the area. Ask the children to decide what information would be appropriate for each (eg distance to the nearest hospital) before trying to find out the answers.

The same activity could be done for a contrasting locality in the UK, in conjunction with other resources such as photographs.

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Comparing countries
(Links with QCA/DfES scheme of work unit 24 'Passport to the world' and provides opportunities for making links with ICT and mathematics.)
Ask small groups of year 6 children to use a factfile such as www.worldfacts.us/ to find out certain facts (eg population, area, life expectancy) about specific countries with contrasting features (eg a country in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Far East, Western Europe, North America, the UK). Ask each group to rank the countries for one of the categories of information on a large sheet of paper and display these on the wall. Ask the children what they notice when they compare two countries: eg does the largest country have the largest population? If not, why might this be? What do they notice about life expectancy and the wealth of the country (GNP)? What do they notice about the standard of living in some countries compared to that in others? Do they think that this is fair?

This activity may be used to challenge more able pupils, but could also be used, with more support, with a wider range of children.

More developed ideas

Learning matters