Primary penguin huddling
Any primary school teachers out there with ideas? I’m organising a few Antarctica mornings for local primaries and I’m trying to work out what to do.
Currently my plan is to have three workshops:
- Penguin Huddling. One of the ways penguins adapt to the harsh conditions of Antarctica is grouping together. After lots of cool slides of wildlife I intend to take the children outside, huddle them together and get them to measure temperatures on the outside and inside of the group to see the difference body heat makes.
- Designing Sledging Flags. Sledging flags aid identification of skiers; this will be necessary on my expedition as we will all be wearing identical kit and visibility is often poor due to drifting snow. The flags should be a way for the children to consider what they are like and then working out how to express this in pictures/emblems.
- Kit Lists. By thinking about what they would take on an expedition to Antarctica, it will get them to think about the conditions they would face. Ideas will be encouraged through using visual displays of mountaineering equipment, old kit and modern kit.
Any comments and further ideas welcome!
Submitted by Phil Avery on 28 Mar 2007
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gus
Let me know how you get on!
Thank You!
Thank you so much for both of your ideas. I'm meeting with a local Primary School tomorrow to discuss what we can do and these ideas will both be featuring! It's so good to finally make this great idea make a difference in the classroom.
Phil
Workshops
I should never think about Blogs - you do one and it is never enough.
The trip to Antarctica is full of educational potential - here is one more idea.
Most of the children you will meet will have heard of, if not seen, a Sat Nav. Why not make each child a human Sat Nav.
Provide a range of maps and get them to plot your route for you. They will need to look at country names, geographical features, scales, directions, speed. This would also involve English, Maths, art etc
You can even (in the great tradition of one well know Sat Nav brand) get them to name their effort. In my case the route would be planned by Gus Gus
One final thought - have you encouraged children to use Google Earth to see where you will be going?
Classroom activity
I have often used the following to see if children's knowledge matches their vocabulary.
The technique involves using a series of objects that are necessary to complete an adventure.
For example. I am going to the moon in a rocket and I have the following.
A moon map
A compass
Two really heavy oxygen bottles
A rescue flare gun
Some food
Some water
Some matches
A rubber raft
etc
As I enter the Moon's atmosphere I see that I do not have enough fuel to get to the Moon Base and I will have to throw some things out to make the rocket lighter. Because of the Moon's gravity all things weigh the same so I throw things out according to usefulness not weight.
The activity is to make a list of the order in which you would throw things out.
Eventually I work out that I am going to land 3 miles away from the base - which three things must I keep?
This can be done in teams, individually etc
My thought is that you could adapt this concept and have a workshop that looks at what you need to take on your expedition - and what you might need to get rid of if the dogs start to get tired.
Is this any help?
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