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About the project
The Making My Place in the World project ran in 2011-2012 and was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and aimed to help students develop speaking and listening skills and geographical knowledge by exploring their local area. It built on past GA projects including Where Will I Live, Making Geography Happen, Young People’s Geographies and Living Geography which endeavour to make school geography directly relevant to young people’s lives. Lesson resources from participating schools can be viewed here.
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About the project
Find out more about the aims of the project, the activities and fieldwork exercises the students took part in and the materials available on this website.
Starter activities
The students engaged in a number of photograph and word tasks to get them talking about their local areas and their hopes for the future.
Fieldwork
Information and resources from a fieldwork trip to Wythenshawe and the students’ subsequent discussion with a shopping centre manager about CCTV.
Classroom activities
Various classroom activities including globingo, places bingo, map and photo tasks, frameworks for talking about place, investigating my patch and doorstep geography.
Virtual fieldwork
How two virtual fieldwork environments were set up using Google Maps, photos and podcasts from local town planners, plus virtual and real fieldwork tasks for students.
Park Hill
An extensive project that was put together to help students develop their vocabulary and become comfortable using similar language to that used by developers at Park Hill.
School resources
Materials from schools that took part in the Making My Place in the World project including lesson plans, teaching resources and evaluations.
Project aims
The aims of the project were wide-ranging and not restricted to geography:
Developing speaking and listening skills – by exploring the students’ own areas they took on the role of ‘expert’ and shared their specialist knowledge with teachers, members of the community and other students. The aim was to increase confidence, self-esteem and improved speaking and listening skills.
Learning about the local area – by engaging in units of work about familiar areas, taking part in field visits and speaking to local experts, students were to find out more about the places they use on a regular basis.
Career aspirations – by talking to professionals such as architects, town planners and developers, the project also aimed to inspire students about the range of career options available to them connected with creating and improving places.
Influence in the local community – by meeting with councillors and local residents, students would realise that they can influence change within their own communities.
The Making My Place in the World project was evaluated by Geoff Bright, Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University, in December 2012.
Evaluation Report
Contents:
- Overall conclusions
- Introduction
- Pilot project aims
- Strengths and areas for development
- Appendix
