Environmental Issues
A
Year 6 class from Torridon Junior School used a Geography project as a springboard
for talking to members of the council about facilities at their local park.
- Overview
- What did the project aim to achieve?
- Developing the project
- What worked well
- What went less well
- Benefits gained from the project
- Unexpected outcomes
- Did technology improve the project?
- Parental involvement
- Overall evaluation
- Back to index of Mini Projects
Overview
Using the local park as their primary source a Year 6 class was involved in deciding how they thought this local amenity could be improved. They went on a mapping expedition to the park, took digital photographs and used these to help them develop a documentary which they filmed and edited themselves. As the project developed the pupils were given the opportunity to join in a webcast with Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham and to take part in a video conference with Andrew Brown, Cabinet Member for the Environment.
What did the project aim to achieve?
The project aimed to:
- engage parents in a local democracy project through a pupil led environmental programme
- develop parents understanding of local democratic processes
- encourage parents to engage with their local council
- enhance pupil understanding of democratic issues
Developing the project
The three Year 6 classes in the school responded to the pupil questionnaire (see related report - Pupil Questionnaire). This provided the impetus for the classes to develop aspects of their Geography project into talking to the local council about improving the amenities at their local park. One class, in particular followed this through.
Using Forster Park as their primary source, each Year 6 class was involved in deciding how they thought this local amenity could be improved. The topic was planned to cover a period of one term and to use cross curricular links where possible, in Geography, literacy, and Maths.
Although the park is local to the school they realised that not all pupils lived in the same catchment area or had had the opportunity to visit the park. They began the topic by looking at maps of the local area and followed up by taking the children on a mapping expedition in the Park itself. Prior to taking the children, the three Year 6 teachers had made a preliminary visit and organised the park into three ‘areas’ that would be suitable for each class to study.
Following their visit the children had the knowledge to make a more informed judgement for themselves. Using photographs taken on the mapping expedition the children created storyboards to plan a ‘documentary’ about their chosen area.
The Leading ICT Teacher from the Sage Educational Trust, accompanied by parents, took groups from each class to video scenes from their storyboards.
Each class also created sets of questions to be entered into a database so that they could have a better idea of what other children in school and parents at home thought about the park and the local community.
One class had the opportunity of joining in the webcast with Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham. Using a web cam the class was also able to put their questions and suggestions to Andrew Brown the Cabinet Member for the Environment in Lewisham Council. Andrew asked the pupils to send him copies of their ‘documentaries’ when they had finished editing them.
The topic concluded with the children creating a leaflet advertising the park and informing others of its features.
You can download the video that they made (6.4MB)
What worked well
- Taking photographs of different areas of the park so that children had ready reference material whenever they needed it, not just relying on memory.
- Creating storyboards from the photographs made writing the 'documentary' script more relevant and was a good memory jogger for ideas.
- Using laptops in classrooms to view the photographs and using the Internet to research maps of the local area.
- Using a video camera to put their ideas into a ‘real’ setting. You can download the video (6.4MB)
What went less well
- More time needed to get the video footage onto the laptops and for the children to work on it . Not all children were able to edit their own bit of film, although they did have the experience of being shown how it could be done.
- Time problem once again with getting the database written, finished, filled in and interrogated. Having to share laptops and ICT suite time between Yr 6 and the rest of the school made it difficult to keep things running to schedule.
Benefits gained from the project
- The Technology aside, it was great to get the children out somewhere local. They got to see areas of the environment they hadn't previously experienced. A lot of them saw the park in a completely different light and were keen to get their parents to take them.
- They had the opportunity to communicate with people who hold important positions and to put their point of view to them.
- They were able to make their own learning more exciting by using their planning to create something (a film) which they had previously not been able to do in school.
Unexpected outcomes
We were very pleased that two members of Lewisham Council, Steve Bullock and Andrew Brown, took the time to get in 'electronic' touch with the children. The children responded enthusiastically and were very keen that they could repeat the experience when asked by Andrew Brown if they had thought the project worthwhile.
Did technology improve the project?
- Most of the project would have been difficult or very nearly impossible without some elements of technology. Simply being able to take digital photographs and be able to share them so quickly on the Interactive White Boards, was a great stimulus for discussion and gave an immediate focus when the children began their storyboards.
- Collecting and collating information from the survey would have been an impossible task without being able to use the databases on the laptops or computers in the ICT suite.
- Although we have maps in school, being able to use the internet for research, gave the children a much wider choice of styles and sizes of maps.
- The children were asked to write letters to Andrew Brown asking him if he could talk to them about environmental issues in Lewisham. It was a huge boost to their self esteem when they found out he wanted to use the webcam and take part in a web conference with them.
- Being able to take part in Steve Bullock's webcast was a very exciting way for the children to feel that someone as important as the Mayor was interested in their opinions.
Parental involvement
- Year 6 parents accompanied children to the park when they began the topic and some were interviewed by the children as part of their documentary feature.
- Parents and carers were invited to attend an assembly presented by one of the classes about Forster Park and gave some very positive feedback about the progress and interest the children had shown towards the topic.
- Two parents were very keen to be involved in the e-conference with Andrew Brown. They had obviously thought about the questions they wanted to ask and were delighted when he was able to respond in a practical way; giving both of them advice, telephone numbers and web sites where they could obtain further information.
- Parents have been very cooperative in completing the questionnaires compiled by the children, to give an adults perspective on Forster Park.
Overall evaluation
We covered nearly all of the targets set during the planning stage. However, more time is needed to be given to some areas due to lack of equipment sharing time. Editing the videos took far longer than was anticipated, purely because of the problem of sharing resources.
We managed cross curricular links with literacy really well. Without allocating literacy time to some of the tasks, the work would not have been completed at all if it had been purely under the Geography ‘umbrella’.
The project was a great success and made learning more relevant than if we had been looking at some anonymous environmental feature elsewhere in Britain. The project gave the children a chance to study, and become involved in, something immediate and personal to them and give them the opportunity, albeit in a small way, to have some say in their own community.
The Sage eDemocracy Project is part of The local e-Democracy National Project