Making My Place in the World
About the project
Making My Place in the World is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and aims to help students develop speaking and listening skills and geographical knowledge by exploring their local area.
It builds on past and current 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.
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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 are wide-ranging and not restricted to geography:
Developing speaking and listening skills - by exploring the students' own areas they take on the role of 'expert' and can share their specialist knowledge with teachers, members of the community and other students. This will lead to increased 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 will 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 aims 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 will begin to realise that they can influence change within their own communities.
Further information
Contact John Lyon to find out more about Making My Place in the World.
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