Starter - Where is your Place of Study?

In our case, our place of study is Canvey Island in Essex .... what does it look like? I use Google Earth [downloadable here] to produce a virtual tour of the area to be visited. I use a variety of the tools in Google Earth to illustrate to the students what our study area is like, for example the ruler tool to highlight the size of the island. We also zoom into the area to identify different land uses and generally discuss the issues we wish to study.

My tour illustrates the Canvey Island area and hopefully my commentary will help you to see the value of using Google Earth in the classroom. [You will need to download Google Earth 5 in order to view the file.]

Main - Having looked at what Canvey Island is like geographically, the students are then in a position to investigate the traffic issue, and start the process of the controlled assessment. We start with the introduction presentation which highlights what the coursework is based on, and what the exam board requirements are.

We then move on mind mapping the route to enquiry. If you have access to an ICT suite there are some excellent mind mapping software packages available for students to use. My personal favorite is bubbl.us but many more are available.

Plenary - A 5-minute question and answer session with reasons behind their routes to enquiry.