In this activity, pupils mapped the world events (inventions, personalities, etc.) in the first ten years of the existence of the school (1898 – 1908) and produced a large-format poster with texts and photographs, which was exhibited in the school premises. Pupils, teachers, and parents could contribute to its completion by adding more information.
The activity was realized by 18 pupils of the seventh grade during Art (6 lessons) and Computer Science (4 lessons) classes. The content of the activity is linked to the content of Art classes (Technology – inventions, machines, Man and his transformation). In Computer Science classes, it was focused on the topic of use of information (searching from multiple sources, critical assessment, classification of information).
Pupils mapped the first ten years of the school and searched information from various sources to identify events, personalities, architectural buildings, inventions, coins, notes and other items from 1898 – 1908 from a global perspective. Information search took place at home and at school. The pupils worked with contemporary journals, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and online sources. They searched for interesting websites with historical themes in various fields of human activity. Pupils also engaged their parents and other family members.
When sorting out and examining materials, the pupils always chose one illustrative photograph which they supplemented with a short concise text. They assumed the role of archaeologists who try to describe a found object, trying to put it into context. Pupils freely placed the described photographs on a timeline and glued them on a big 70×400 cm poster, which they also treated artistically. By placing disparate and unrelated information, they created a mosaic which approximates the beginning of the 20th century in a new context. The poster was displayed in the school hall in order to show this period of school history to other pupils. The second poster we deliberately left unfinished so as to allow others to add (glue) more information.
Opinions of students:
The biggest problems during the task solution:
It was difficult to shorten the information.
I had problem dividing the tasks for pairs of pupils.
Did you work with digital technics?
I used Internet, mobile phone and video camera..
I used MS Word for writing the text.
Did I learn anything new?
We learnt how to work on a long-term project, which is divided into small parts.
I learnt how to work myself.
I learnt how to agree with others on creating mutual image.
I learnt to voice and cut a short video film.
I learnt how to search information on the Internet. We were looking for information in English because there is a lot of English written pages about history.
What shall I do better next time?
I would change everything. The project was difficult and it took much time to get what the result should be.