Overview

Children work in groups of three to find out about the Industrial Revolution. Each member of the group is assigned a role and fulfills a task independently. Roles include the Chief Executive of the National Archives who must choose the invention that he/she believes was most significant during the Industrial Revolution, the Commissioner for Queen Victoria who must investigate the prevalence of child labour and Lord Shaftesbury who must write his acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Contribution to Children Award Ceremony! Finally the children must create a still image of life in a factory and in an inventor\'s workshop during the Industrial Revolution. The pupils\' area of the site includes: instructions, questions to guide the research and hyperlinks to each topic. The teacher\'s area of the site includes: Instructions, hyperlinks for teacher information and suggestions for further development and integration with other subject areas. This project fulfills the objectives of the Strand Unit Eras of Change and Conflict, and the collaborative nature of the project develops intrapersonal and cooperative skills among the children. This resource is aimed at 5th and 6th Class pupils, but would be suitable for younger pupils in a multi-class situation with support from teacher/peers. It is envisaged that the project would take approximately 3-4 classes of 30 minutes duration.

Curriculum Addressed

Best used during SESE, in particular History where pupils work as historians and are enabled to develop an understanding of time and chronology, change and continuity, cause and effect, using evidence and developing empathy for people in the past.

Objectives: Closely fulfills the objectives in the Strand - Eras of Change and Conflict, where the objectives include: - become familiar with aspects of these periods - examine and become familiar with evidence which informs us about the lives of people in the periods studied, their thoughts and concerns - record the place of peoples and events on appropriate timelines Integrates well with other curricular areas including English, Drama, and SPHE.