Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

natural boulders and concrete were used in different ways as sea defences. Fourpupils drew simple plans to show how these features were located at different placeson the length of coast they had studied. Four pupils from one class drew plans toshow the angles at which waves hit the beach and how longshore drift works. Thismay well have been discussed by their teacher as the practical work on longshoredrift was almost non-existent. In future trips it may be worthwhile to include simpleexperiments to show children how the movement of water along the coast actuallytakes place.50% of pupils recorded in some ways one of the most potentially powerful activitiesundertaken on the visit. They were put into groups (Dunne and Bennett, 1990)and each one way given an identical small piece of wood. Their task was to designand build a sea defence to stop the in-coming tide from getting hold of their pieceof wood. This activity created great excitement and much team co-operation andsocial learning. It had been planned to time it so that the groups could then observehow the in-coming tide attacked their defence. Pupils used sand, mud, pebbles,drainage channels, seaweed and the slight variations in the topography of the beachto construct their defence. Video data from 2003 includes detailed explanationsof their structures and how effective they were against the in-coming tide. The2003 paper data contains many detailed diagrams and descriptions of this activitybecause they pupils were able to watch the in-coming tide destroy their structure andcompare theirs with other group designs. The data includes many examples of veryclear understanding of how different materials and designs withstood the power ofthe waves. Unfortunately, in 2004 the teachers had mis-read the tide time charts onthe web and arrived just as the tide was going out. The 2004 pupils still built theirstructures, but those 50% pupils who did record the building experience used muchsimpler sketches and vocabulary to explain the task and why it had been undertaken.By comparing the 2003 data with that from 2004, it appears that pupils who hadthe vivid experience of watching how the sea destroyed their defence were able todemonstrate more examples of the concepts they now understood.Transportation of materialOne activity required pupils to collect a sample of sea water and seal it in a plasticbottle. The teachers’ objective was to show how sea water transports solid materialalong the coast and how this load is made up of a variety of materials. It was alsodesigned to reinforce the concepts of erosion, transportation and deposition. Threepupils demonstrated some understanding of these concepts through sketches andwriting. The predominant misconception by pupils was that the purpose of theactivity was that they “collected water to see how the water would settle” (girl, 10).The word ’settle’ was used by over 30% of pupils. Apart from one boy who wrote“we learnt about the waves carrying pebbles” there was very little evidence of howthis activity helped develop a clear understanding of transportation processes. Backin the classroom pupils were able to see how the load did settle out into layers in theirbottles. It is possible that the way in which water handles a variety of particles istoo complex a concept for primary age children and that some awareness of water’s34