How far did the ‘humble potato’ change the world? 

Where could this fit into my history curriculum?

•This could be used before embarking on a study of the British Empire to develop students' knowledge of other European explorations and colonisations and to start thinking about the wider impacts of Empire and globalisation.

•It could also be used as a standalone lesson moving out of the Medieval period into Renaissance period.

How would the knowledge gained be useful through the curriculum?

•This links into concepts such as Empire, exploration and trade. Students will gain an insight into the indirect consequences of Empire and this could also link to the story of the Nutmeg which could also be used when teaching the British Empire

•This lesson highlights how a something that could be perceived as a small change has far reaching impacts. The skills that students are using in this lesson can and should be being developed throughout their KS3 study.

How did war on the Western Front impact upon the environment? 

Links to Bringing environmental history into the classroom / Historical Association.

Where could this fit into my history curriculum?

•This could be taught in place of the ‘trench conditions’ lesson which would normally focus on the impact of the environment on soldiers. Instead, this lesson looks at this as a two way relationship, exploring warfare's impact on the environment and the impact of the environment of soldiers.

•This could also be the final lesson looking at the environmental impact of WW1 and how it is remembered.

How would the knowledge gained be useful through the curriculum?

•The lesson encourages pupils to develop the key skill of using sources to extract evidence. The key content also encourages pupils to think about the positive impact humans can have on the environment, as well as the negative through warfare. This content is useful feeding forward to an examination of the Somme, which could link back through the mines used at the beginning; the conditions at Passchendaele; and how we remember WW1.

Story, Source Scholarship - How did the IR spark the climate challenges we face today?

Where could this fit into my history curriculum?

•This could be used when teaching the IR to examine thoughts from the time about how the IR was impacting pollution and landscape. 

Did the industrial revolution help people more than it harmed the environment? 

The lesson question

•There is an ethical dimension to the question, which Riley does advise against in his seminal work Into the KS3 History Garden. This question requires students to consider what is ethically more important: the well-being and progress of people (or a few people, as Thompson argues) during the Industrial Revolution or the environmental damage that has lasting effects on both nature and future generation. The reasons I chose this question is if we are going to study the environment the complexities of these moral judgements must be explored,  both through the lens of people in the past who made these decisions and of our future generation who we are teaching.

•The lesson question could well be an enquiry question spanning several lessons

Information given

•E H Carr argued that historical facts do not speak for themselves; rather, they are selected, arranged, and interpreted by the historian, much like a fisherman selectively casts a net and chooses which fish to keep. I have chosen the information in this lesson to give a broad overview of the impacts of the IR as fairly and concisely as I can for a KS3 class in one lesson.

Where could this fit into my history curriculum?

•At the end of the Industrial Revolution unit.

•This lesson question could form an enquiry question with several lessons exploring the intricacies of the topic with environmental factors woven into the fabric of the enquiry.

How would the knowledge gained be useful through the curriculum?

•Knowledge of the Industrial Revolution helps pupils studying 20th-century history understand the roots of technological progress, social change, economic shifts, and environmental issues, shaping events like World Wars, urbanization, and the environmental movement.

How far reaching was the impact of the Little Ice Age? 

Where could this fit into my history curriculum?

•This could be taught as the lesson before a study on the Black Death. Early on in the medieval unit in order to provide students with hinterland knowledge that is essential for building up environmental awareness around key events 1300-1800.

•You will explore the preconditions relating to famine which increased mortality rates during the Black Death, making it useful to start your enquiry into the Black Death with this lesson.

How would the knowledge gained be useful through the curriculum?

•The LIA background information on the climatic conditions of the age providing students with hinterland knowledge that links into causal factors of key events such as The Witchcraze (bad harvests being blamed on the witches) and the French Revolution (freak hailstorm destroying crops that pushed up bread prices).