In Autumn , the Year 4 crew’s project was called “When Forces Roar.”
We answered the following essential questions…
EQ: “Which force is the most powerful: human or nature?”
The Learning Targets for this project were to answer the following:
- What is the Earth’s greatest superpower?
- Can we control the world, or just reduce risk?
- Who survives the best in a natural disaster?
- Am I a survivor?
- What makes for successful conquest?
- Is Empire fair?
For our immersion lesson, the children investigated a disaster-hit classroom and investigated what has caused such a horrible disaster.
Case Study 1:
The children studied different types of natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes. They have looked at recent occurrences of all three. The children learnt about the geography/science behind natural disasters and made links with global goal 13 and decided if climate change can trigger a natural disaster. We compared the idea of natural disasters and humans causing disasters to try and answer the question “What is the Earth’s greatest superpower?” During the case study children will also study the water cycle and assess the power of water.
Case Study 2:
The children found out about Roman Settlements in Britain. They explored the conquest of Britain led by Claudius in AD49. There had been many attempts to conquer Britain that failed prior to this so this gave us the opportunity to answer the question “What makes for successful conquest?” We then looked at where settlements in Britain are sited, investigating why they were sited in particular places. When we looked at where settlements where sited we made links back with the water cycle and decided the importance of waterways in the placement of settlements. The main settlement that we looked at during the project is Deva Victrix (Chester). We asked what happened to the local populations to ask “Is Empire fair?” During this assessment the children looked at the pros and cons of Roman settlement if Deva Victrix.
Case Study 3:
The children then researched the maps of Ptolemy, at first using these to map volcanoes in the Roman Empire, then we moved onto maps of the wider world. The children found out where volcanoes are located, then they spotted patterns. This allowed us to talk about continental plates and movements. Therefore, opening up other natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. The children then asked, “Can we reduce risk?” We looked at the safest places to live, is Britain safe from natural disasters and we will look at how they can still effect our lives by studying the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010. The children compared the eruption of Vesuvius to that of Eyjafjallajökull through the works of Pliny the Yonger
During the project, we will also completed work on Roman Mosaics, making links with the Spanish architect Gaudi.
Our legacy outcome for the project will be planting trees for the local community as our project has many links with climate change. We will look at the United Nations Global Goal 13, making links between the destructive nature of humans and the destructive nature of natural disasters. We can hopefully offset some of this using the trees that we plant.
