Knowledge Aquisition

In order for the children to complete the Problem Based tasks they need to have key bits of knowledge.

They needed to know about :

The different types of Geese and what they needed to survive.
Where the Geese were in the surrrounding area.
What was happening to the numbers of Geese.
How the RSPB use data and record the numbers of Geese
What the effect climate change was having on the Geese.
How could they could help with the problem of decreasing numbers of geese

Watch this short video as Sam Irvine explains how they ensured that the children had all the knowledge they needed.

Learning about The Geese and Map Reading:

Expedition 1

For this project we were able to take the children on a local walk to various points around the village where we they would be able to hopefully be able to see the roosting ground and feeding grounds of the geese. If we were really lucky we might have seen some Geese! The weather was horrendous for this expedition but the children are used to being outdoors in all weather so took it in their stride. In addition to learning about the Geese this will an ideal opportunity for the teams to work together on this expedition focussing on encouraging each other and trusting and supporting each other.

Star Orienteering

This activity doubled up as a community builder and an opportunity for the children to learn how to be able to identify the 5 main types of Geese that we were likely to spot around Gartocharn. Using Star Orienteering the children had to find 8 clues about each type of geese in order to identify which one it was. They had to use their map reading skills in order to find the clue. This again was a great opportunity to build community within each team and to reflect on these skills.

Matching Activity

A straighforward activity to help the childre idenify the key features of each type of Geese.

REad and REsearch

The Problem Based Task on Day 3 challenged the children to share their knowledge with the wider community. In order for the children to produce their Information Posters they needed to further their knowledge on

Data Handling

In order to do a key part of the Citizen Science aspect of the Project the children had to learn some data handling techniques and concepts. Here the children took part in gathering data ( different stick sizes ), recording using tally marks and then displaying the data on bar graphs both hand drawn and digital.

Ask the Expert

The children invited the RSPB along to the school so that they could get more information for their challenges. Prior to the visit the children had created questions for the expert.

Expedition 2: Where would we put our Information posts and Geese spotting

On our second expedition the children were looking to identify the best place to locate their QR codes.