Geography, Sandon High School

Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

Sandon High School Geography Department use of the Visualiser The visualiser has the wow factor with all pupils in KS3 and KS4. The impact of showing pupils work, geographical images and text has been immediate and immense. Teaching Ordnance Survey Map Reading skills. KS3 Pupils were taught 4 and 6 figure grid references using grids projected onto the whiteboard. Pupils then came out in turn to plot grid references. Pupils were asked orally for grid references from the resource. To then transfer this skill to using the Free Ordnance Survey Maps for Schools, in the case of Sandon High School. 1:25 000 Stoke-on-Trent, provided for every Year 7. The sections of the Ordnance Survey map was projected onto the screen and used to set the task and ensure pupils are looking at the correct section of the map and symbols. (The Department does have the software Memory Map and uses this for different parts of Britain and the facility to create 3Dmaps and photographs of the relief features. However on Memory Map the easting and northings are not always shown).

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study

Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

KS3 Geographical Fieldwork Year 8 Traffic Enquiry. Key Question. Is the volume of traffic significantly different on the A50. Sandon Road, Weston Road, Saracens Way and Pickford Place? The class completed tally charts on the five roads, on fieldwork. Then the data was then collated in class. Pupils are then asked to hand draw pie charts, using pie chart drawers, to show the percentage of cars, lorries, heavy lorries, cycles on each road for comparison. Pupils are also asked to accurately draw flow arrows on a base map of the road layout. The visualiser enables the teacher to clearly illustrate the use of the mathematical equipment (Pie chart drawer, 30cm ruler). This avoids the common mistakes pupils make of not locating accurately the centre of the pie chart, forgetting to draw in the 0 % line and not remembering to place the 0 % of the pie chart drawer on the last line the pupil drew. Also to emphasis the need for a common colour key for the written analysis, comparison of the charts.

The visualiser enables the teacher to clearly demonstrate the method of accurately measuring and drawing the flow arrows and the spatial placement of the arrows on the base map. During the task examples of pupils work is displayed by the visualiser to highlight common errors and praise pupil progress.

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study

Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

KS4 Year 10 GCSE Urban Fieldwork. Pupils collect data in three shopping centres in Stoke-on-Trent using a questionnaire. The results are collated in class for the whole GCSE geography cohort. Pupils then refine the data using ICT using a wide variety of appropriate methods which includes, pie charts, line charts, radial charts, spatial maps, annotated images, land use mapping selected by the pupils. The teacher uses the visualiser to clearly explain to pupils how to obtain the data from the 1:50 000 Stoke-on-Trent Ordnance Survey Maps to construct radial charts to show the sphere of influence of each shopping centre. The data required is the distance and compass direction of each interviewee’s home location from the shopping centres. The equipment used with the visualiser is 1:50 000 Stoke-on-Trent OS map, degree drawer and 30 cm ruler. The teacher uses the visualiser to illustrate how to draw accurate radial charts, with a scale, key and North Arrow. Using acetate sheets a different example can be shown to illustrate how to overlay radial charts to show sphere of influence. Assessment for Learning. Using the Better Descriptions and Explanations Model created by Chris Durbin, Former Geography Inspector for Staffordshire and Peter Davies Institute for Education Policy Research Staffordshire University, Jon Clarke and Miss Marsden with colleagues from the teaching profession in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. Published in ‘It’s long, it’s neat and it’s coloured in nicely’. QLS Staffordshire 2005. The model is laminated for each child and show on the screen with the visualiser. The visualiser is used to show pupils’ work for peer assessment and for pupils to mark their own work in connection with the model and the Geography Department Marking Policy. At KS4 the pupils work is peer assessed against the GCSE Marking Policy. Pupil Presentations The Geography Department is currently experimenting with the visualiser to record pupil presentations in Geography and the Eco School Committee presentations. These could then be used for self assessment and as a record of pupils work, for Ofsted, the RGS and GA Secondary Geography Quality Mark. At the moment the memory required on the laptop is too great and the final size of the video footage on not large enough for the digital projection on to the classroom screen. However the pupils could be projected on to the screen while presenting to the class.

Pauline Marsden Leader of Study Lead Learner for the Geography Department.

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study

Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study