Fostering Historical Inquiry in the Middle Years History Classroom

Dr Catherine HartLuther College, Croydon

Learning in the middle years needs to be

RELEVANT

• Relevant to policy & curriculum • Relevant to learners (VELS - Unit of work – sequence of lessons)

Learning in the middle years needs to be

PURPOSEFUL

Supporting conceptual development

Concepts

Learning in the middle years needs to be

CLEAR and EXPLICIT

Learning in the middle years needs

to beMANAGEABLE

Learning in the middle years needs to be

LEARNER CENTRED

How do learning tasks ENGAGE learners? What is your ‘hook’?

How do learning tasks cater for different STUDENT ABILITIES and LEARNING STYLES?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEdHO7ef96I

‘Time Detectives’ unit of work20-24 lessons (5-6 weeks)Beginning of year 7

Key inquiry questions:How do we learn from what others left behind?What will others learn from us in the future?

A sample year 7 history lesson: The UNIT context

The VELS context

Before SAMPLE lesson:

1. How do we investigate the past? Why is it important?

2. What is archaeology? What is it not? 3. Why is archaeology important? What do

archaeologists do?4. The archaeological process - why do it and

how is it done? (LESSON FITS IN HERE)

Sample lesson

And in the next few lessons…

Lesson audit

Relevant?Purposeful?Clear and explicit?Manageable?Learner centred?

What is this?

This is the Mercator map (1596).

For most of the 20th century, the National

Geographic Society, various atlases, and

classroom wall cartographers used the Mercator

projection for most world maps.

Cartography: study of maps, making of maps

Do you see any problem with using this map in the classroom?

The Greenland problem

http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/maps/page10.html

Actual Statistics

Greenland: 2.175 million sq km Africa: 31 million sq km Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland!

In fact:

Africa could hold the land occupied by China, India, Europe, Argentina, New Zealand and the continental United States, with room to spare! 

The North compared to the South

Actual statistics

The North is 49 million sq km.

The South is 100 million sq km.

http://www.petersmap.com/page5.html

Europe compared to South America

Actual statisticsEurope is 9.8 million sq

km.

South America is 17.9 million sq km.

Why does this distortion occur?

Geradus Mercator invented his famous projection in 1596 as an aid to

navigators. On his map, lines of latitude and longitude intersect at right

angles and thus the direction of travel - the rhumb line - is consistent. It is

a cylindrical map, that's why the landforms on this map become

increasingly distorted the farther you get from the equator. The distortion

of the Mercator Map increases as you move north and south from the

equator.

Mercator never intended his map to be used for purposes other than

navigation although it became one of the most popular world map

projections.

Why was the Mercator Map used when the distortion was known?

This was convenient, psychologically and practically, through the eras of

colonial domination when most of the world powers were European. It

suited them to maintain an image of the world with Europe at the centre

and looking much larger than it really was. Was this conscious or

deliberate? Probably not, as most map users probably never realised the

Eurocentric bias inherent in their world view.

When there are so many other projections to chose from, why is it that

today the Mercator projection is still such a widely recognised image used

to represent the globe?

http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/math/mercator.htm

The Peters MapA different type of projection is an ‘Equal-Area’ projection. This shows sizes in proportion while sacrificing true shape. The Peters Projection (1974) is one type of equal area map.

The Peters map cont. Here are some facts about the Peters map:

The Peters Map is an equal area map. This new map shows all areas - whether countries,

continents or oceans - according to their actual size. Accurate comparisons become possible.

The Peters Map is an equal axis map. All North-South lines run vertical on this map. Thus,

geographic points can be seen in their precise directional relationship.

The Peters Map shows equal positions. All East-West Lines run parallel. Thus the

relationship of any point on the map to its distance from the equator or the angle of the sun can readily be determined.

This map has caused a lot of controversy – why do you think

this is so?

Comparing the Mercator and the Peters map

Which one immediately looks more ‘normal’ to you?

Which one is the Mercator map?

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