Geographical Association/DfES Primary Geography Project Final Report Peckover School, Wisbech

Thinking process When I returned from the Introductory session for the project, I think the whole school could feel my enthusiasm! I took a slot at the following Monday’s staff meeting to fill everyone in on what I had found out and to ask for volunteers who would be interested in working with me on the project. Our newly qualified Year 3 teacher came forward, and told me that her next Unit of Work, from the Cambridgeshire Scheme of Work, was ‘Investigating Settlement’ and that she was feeling very uninspired by the whole thing, and not sure where to start!

Thinking Process We looked through the Unit for an activity that we felt could be enhanced to use on the Interactive Whiteboard. There were many possibilities! We decided on: Key questions/ ideas/ concepts Teaching/learning activitiesResourcesKey vocabulary Why are settlements built? Compare photographs and written information for two different settlements. What could you do in these settlements? What jobs do people do? Photographs of two different settlements, text, brochures. Seaside resort, market, industry, university

Thinking Process This aspect of the unit was chosen for a couple of reasons. The first being there seemed to be a lot of obstacles to other options. For example, we wanted to create an imaginary map, but couldn’t find any suitable map symbols to download, despite looking for a very long time on various websites! Secondly we decided that it would be a good idea to introduce an Interactive Whiteboard session close to the beginning of the Unit, to ensure the children’s interest was maintained.

The Lesson! The lesson consisted of a Smart Notebook with maps of both Hunstanton and Cambridge. The maps were found on the Ordnance Survey website – Get a Map. It also had a mixed selection of pictures from both places. These came from Google.Ordnance Survey website – Get a Map.Google. The children were asked to place the pictures on the correct map and give their reasons for their choices. As a follow-up to the Smart Notebook session, a hyperlink was created on each map, to a website about the place. Children could then investigate the site to find out if their opinions about each settlement were correct.

Evaluation I decided to evaluate the impact of the Interactive Whiteboard in two ways: through a lesson observation and a pupil questionnaire.lesson observation pupil questionnaire. I also had some very positive feedback from children just talking to me in the corridor! They thanked me for making the Smart Notebook for them and told me how much they had enjoyed using it.

Next steps Tackle any obstacles that may prevent a Interactive Whiteboard being used – for example the problems with finding suitable graphics mentioned earlier. Widen audience. We hope to have an Interactive Whiteboard in every classroom, and want them to be used! I need to remind teachers of the resources available to them, both from this project and the wider area – software companies, internet etc. The project has been very successful, so we need to keep it going!