This week crew Young visited Crew Mandela to deliver a session on the method of loci. The method of loci (loci being Latin for “places”) is a method of memory enhancement which uses visualisations with the use of spatial memory, familiar information about one’s environment, to quickly and efficiently recall information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, or mind palace technique. Crew Mandela found the method extremely useful and all students improved their memory of a single list of words!
This week has seen 7Explorer begin Case Study 2 which is entitled ‘Say It Ain’t So!’
As part of our introduction, we have been learning about the continents, oceans and countries of the world.
We then zoomed in on the country of Africa in order to set the context for this case study.
We spent time getting to know the four key biomes of Africa. To do this, each of us had to become an expert about one particular biome and make notes about its key features.
We then had to share our expert knowledge and teach others about our biome.
It was wonderful to hear the quality of discussion and teaching that was taking place between students.
At the end of the session, students had to ‘Press Save…’ and note down two features that they had learnt about each biome.
The final product for the Y8 expedition ‘A Place Of Our Own’ has culminated in a ‘Print Run’ where copies of students’ artwork will be exhibited in public buildings across Doncaster: CAST theatre, Civic Centre, Frenchgate shopping centre and Dreambakes.
This process was launched last Wednesday when Doncaster’s Mansion House hosted a group of our Y8s where we officially donated an A0 size print of the building. Check out the video below:
You can read more about the specific details concerning the expedition ‘A Place Of Our Own’ here, but I was immensely proud of the rigour that underpinned every aspect of its work: the anchor text that ran throughout the expedition was John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’, a historical enquiry revolved around studies of the causes and consequences of the 1930s Great Depression as well as the Suffragette movement in Doncaster, creative writing focused on prominent parts of Doncaster, renewable and non-renewable energy including an application for Eco School’s Bronze accreditation were explored in STEM, and the culmination of the artwork took place in X-Block where an expert from Sheffield’s Print Club taught students how to create prints of their work on local buildings.
Students also developed their scientific understanding even further by studying biodiversity and how humans can support healthy ecosystems and how to transfer energy in ecosystems, using food chains and webs, pyramids of number and biomass. Students accompanied their artwork with a first-person poem that embodied their vision of Doncaster and how to make it reflect their own aspirations – based upon Tony Walsh’s poem ‘This is the place’. In addition to this, students applied their knowledge of geometry and architecture in Maths to create blueprints of their own Eco-school, and used a computer aided design app called Room Sketcher to create specific designs.
Students, as always, then presented their work via the Presentation Of Learning to a wider audience of parents on 18th December. What an expedition!! Stay tuned for the curation of student work around school.
7 Pioneer had extended study last week and here are some of the results!
There was fantastic effort and hard work put into these pieces of work – it is clear Aaron, Jacob, Ava, Charlie, and Dylan focused on their Craftsmanship and Quality when creating these beautiful pieces of work.
A reminder to all that extended study should be completed with the same focus on the HOWLs as work completed in school – students need to Work Hard and Get Smart when completing extended study. Pioneer we’ve still not had 100% hand in rate for a piece of extended study – we can do this!
E25 have an Extended Study Task which has been emailed to them, posted on the Expedition Google Site and on Google Classroom. This is due on Wednesday 13th February in our Science lesson.
If they are unable to access it due to permissions on the doc, they should try logging in through their Google account on the XP East website first.
This is Jeff! Jeff was the creation of Alfie and Adam in Pioneer STEAM expedition ‘Why Me?’
Jeff was the product of genetic inheritance. Pioneer found that some characteristics are controlled by a single gene, such as fur in animals and red-green colour blindness in humans. Each gene might have different forms, and these are called alleles. The monster Jeff shows the dominant and recessive genes in shown in the Phenotypes! Great work Pioneer!
Just a reminder to all E25 students that the pre-learning for tomorrow’s Science lesson involves watching this video and completing this form to demonstrate your understanding of the key points. The aim of this task is to give you a head-start on the content we will be tackling, so please do not panic if you find it a challenge initially!
Thank you to the majority of students who have completed this already and to those who have emailed me with questions or requests for support with this task.
What an afternoon with year 8 Pioneer! We headed over to use the seminar tables in the music room and had a full session of discussion using the Socratic Seminar protocol. Amazing contributions from the whole class – focussed, attentive, respectful.
And the session was so successful because of the hard work they’ve been putting in leading up to it, and being persistent when challenging themselves to investigate and understand Shakespeare’s language.
We explored 3 questions:
Was Macbeth’s imaginary dagger an invitation or a warning?
Was Macbeth free to choose whether to kill Duncan?
Was the murder of Duncan Macbeth’s peripeteia?
Take a look at a brief moment from this afternoon.
This week, 7 Pioneer’s lessons focused on 1930s America. We learnt all about the Great Depression, the Wall Street Crash and the standard of living for the people of America during this time.
This was to aid understanding of the context of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ – which is the anchor text to our expedition ‘Stand Up!’. This expedition’s guiding question is ‘when is it right to make a stand?’ and we will explore topics of slavery, racism, prejudice and discrimination throughout the expedition.
One of the activities during this week’s lessons was mapping the Deep South of the USA -from memory! The students were in four teams, each member of the team had 20 seconds to memorise the map of the Deep South and feedback to their group the states they could remember. A fantastic effort from everyone!
A special mention to Junia and Denim, who in their own time, have completed extended learning about 1930s America and the Great Depression. This is a fantastic way of showing they are working hard and getting smart by taking responsibility for their own education – impressive!
Last week, 7 Pioneer worked hard to uncover the message behind the text ‘The Rainbow Creation’. Students worked with a level of understanding and maturity that was beyond their years. I saw students show respect and understanding, challenge each others ideas with well articulated arguments and demonstrated a deep level of understanding of the text that they were working to decipher. There was a highly insightful, engaging discussion around the concept of identity, using the ‘popcorn’ protocol – I was genuinely moved by the comments and opinions of Pioneer students.
I am incredibly proud to be able to support the learning of a fantastic group of young people. It’s great to see their eagerness to learn in their new Humanities expedition ‘Stand Up’
Below are just a few examples of Pioneer’s interpretation of the text – these were written by year 7 students, Dylan and Alice.
We explored 3 questions:
