1. Year 8 History Independent Project Three
World War One
This project is designed to help you become a more independent learner and to develop skills which will help you throughout your time at school.
As you have seen the silver passport takes you on a journey to becoming a thinker, source analyst and an enquirer. If you chose your activities for this project carefully you can gain stamps for some of your key skills and continue on your journey.
HOW TO USE THIS INFORMATION LEAFLET:
Each project must include at least 4 activities.
You can choose the activities you wish to do.
The activities you choose will have a little stamp near them telling you which skills they are testing.
Use your passport to help you decide which skills you need to focus on.

2. Activity One – Soldiers Life
Carry Out
Activity One – Soldiers Life
No Mans Land
Trench foot
Sickness
Consequence
Gas attacks
Boredom
Patrol
Death
Diary entry for a soldier in the trenches of the Western Front.
Use all the ideas above to help.

3. Activity Two – Causes of War Germany declares war on France, why?
Carry Out
Activity Two – Causes of War
Franz Ferdinand is assassinated. Who is he and why did it cause such a problem?
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
Germany declares war on Russia, Why did they do this?
Germany declares war on France, why?
Germany invades neutral Belgium, Why?
Britain declares war on Germany, why do they get involved?
Hypothesis
Inference
Read the flow chart and answer the questions within it.

4. You could include the following....
Message and Purpose
Activity Three – Assassination Franz Ferdinand
Write a newspaper report on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand/
You could include the following....
The events of the day
How people were feeling about the event
SHOCK
ANGER
PITY
CONFUSION
What might happen next?
THINK ABOUT THE TWO ALLIANCES
Hypothesis
Analyse
Handout

5. Activity Four - Photographs
Analyse
Activity Four - Photographs
Look at the photos from the Western front.
What can you see in the pictures?
What do the large puddles tell us?
Why is there no one in the photos?
How do these images make you feel?
From these pictures can you tell anything about the war?
Do they give a positive or negative view no mans land?
Consequence
Hypothesis

6. How were men encouraged to join the army?
Significance
Activity Five – Recruitment
How were men encouraged to join the army?
Use the sources below to help explain your answer.
Carry Out
Consequence

7. Activity Six – Treaty of Versailles
Message and Purpose
Activity Six – Treaty of Versailles
Was the Treaty of Versailles going to create peace in Europe?
Explain your answer. Use information below to help.
Inference
Germany wasn’t invited
France wanted revenge
USA didn’t want to be involved
Hypothesis
Germany were forced to sign
Italy wanted a share
Your ideas

8. Activity Seven – Recruitment
Significance
Activity Seven – Recruitment
Why did men join the army?
Using the reasons below put them in order from most to least important reason and explain your choices.
Change and Continuity
PATRIOTISM
Fighting for your country
ADVENTURE
To go to exotic and new places
SOCIAL PRESSURE
Given white feathers accused of being a coward
HATRED
Believed in what they were fighting for, hated the Germans
PROPAGANDA
Posters and leaflets
TIME
Believing the war would be over by Christmas

9. Activity Eight – The Christmas Truce 1914
Carry Out
Activity Eight – The Christmas Truce 1914
Statements
The man at the Front could not help but have a degree of sympathy for his opponents who were having just as miserable a time as they were.
In 1914 the men at the front could still see the vestiges of civilisation.  Villages, although badly smashed up, were still standing.  Fields, although pitted with shell-holes, had not been turned into muddy lunarscapes.
Also lacking - at this early stage of the war - was the pain, misery and hatred that years of bloody war eventually build up. Gas had not yet been used, the death toll was not yet in the millions, and both sides expected the war to end in 1915.
Then there was the desire, on all sides, to see the enemy up close – was he really as bad as the politicians, papers and priests were saying?
As Christmas approached parcels packed with goodies from home started to arrive.  On top of this came gifts from the state.  Tommy received plum puddings and 'Princess Mary boxes' filled with chocolates, butterscotch, cigarettes and tobacco; Fritz got the Kaiserliche.
Match the statements on the left hand side with these ‘reasons’ for the Christmas Truce
Men at the front missed home and were reminded of home by the villages that surrounded them at the front.
Curiosity.
Empathy – both sides were suffering equally and could appreciate each other’s circumstances.
There was not, as yet, so much hatred of the enemy.
The festive mood
Analyse
Using the information provided, and your own knowledge, answer the following questions
Why do you think the truce only really took hold in the British part of the front line?
Which side do you think tended to begin the Truce in the different parts?
Why do you think frontline officers didn’t mind the Truce?
Why did the higher ranking ‘Brass Hats’ want to put a stop to the ‘fraternisation’?

10. Activity Nine – Problems in the trenches
Carry Out
Activity Nine – Problems in the trenches
Research the problems below and answer:
Out of all the conditions in the trenches which problem do you think was the worst and why?
Hypothesis
Significance
Boredom
Rats
Lice
Gas Attacks
Trench Foot
Night Patrol

11. Activity Ten – Propaganda Posters
Significance
Activity Ten – Propaganda Posters
Why are World War One Propaganda Posters important?
Use the following information to help you write your answer....
Change and Continuity
Analyse
Morale
Attitudes
Values
Persuade
Encourage
Fear
2. Create your own propaganda poster for World War One

12. Activity Eleven – Problems in the Trenches
Carry Out
Activity Eleven – Problems in the Trenches
Death was always happening to those serving in the line, even when no raid or attack was launched or defended against.
Many men were buried as a result of attacks.. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper's bullet. Aside from enemy injuries, disease occurred a lot.
Rats in their millions infested trenches.  There were two main types, the brown and the black rat.  Both were hated but the brown rat was especially feared.  Gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver) they could grow to the size of a cat.
Lice were a never-ending problem, breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing men to itch all the time. Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. 
Trench Foot was another medical condition peculiar to trench life.  It was a fungal infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and dirty trench conditions.  It could turn gangrenous and result in the removal of the foot. Rotting carcases lay around in their thousands. 
Overflowing latrines (toilets) would similarly give off a most offensive stench.
Men who had not been afforded the luxury of a bath in weeks or months would offer the pervading odour of dried sweat.  The feet were generally accepted to give off the worst stink. Add to this the smell of cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke and cooking food!
Analyse
Read the passage below and then list all the possible problems soldiers may have come across.
Come up with some solutions to these problems.