Guidelines on how to teach content
Among the methods which may be used are:
- Using a data projector the teacher might introduce the class to the study of transport in Leixlip. Full class discussion of the maps, aerial views and other data would be facilitated.
- Using a computer room, groups of children might be given one section of the unit to explore and discuss. Each group would return to the full class and report what they had learned.
- Each group might conduct local traffic surveys and plot the data on a graph.
- Each group might present their own section, including the graph in a PowerPoint presentation, to parents in a local studies evening.
Some investigative techniques for exploring the Leixlip environment
- Plotting routes
- Conducting a traffic survey
Understanding where and how various features within the environment are linked to each other is closely related to the child’s location awareness and his/her sense of place.
A very practical way in which to tackle this work is to look at the routes that pupils and others use to move around in the environment. Routes used by the children and their parents might be plotted on a map and interesting comparisons made between the routes followed when travelling by car, by bus, or on bicycle or on foot. Plotting unofficial routes and short cuts can reveal interesting patterns. Children might be encouraged to draw up their own trails for visitors. They could identify types of routes – main roads, by-roads and lanes.
Traffic surveys
Children can readily undertake counting and analysing the numbers and types of vehicles that people use to travel within and through their local place. Like other surveys, traffic counts draw upon a number of skills, including those connected with the collection and presentation of data. Children can be taught to use tally marks during the observation period. They should agree upon a categorisation of vehicle types and raw data can then be presented using tables, graphs, pictograms and pie charts drawn by hand or using a database and graphics program on a computer.
Work on data collection and presentation may involve the proposing and testing of hypotheses and the analysis of the information amassed. For example, surveys collected at different times of the day could be prepared and reasons sought for the differences noticed. The effect that the varying frequency of traffic has on other aspects of the environment might be noted: the effect the density of traffic can have on the speed of vehicles, the noise experienced in the locality.
The results of traffic surveys may lead to further investigations designed to clarify the reasons behind some of the patterns noticed or to suggest solutions to problems.