Case Study
Make war history
Letting students choose where to go enhances involvement
A visit for a group of Year 9 students to the British Imperial War Museum was undertaken. The purpose of the trip was to give them a sense of what it would have been like to be a Jewish person during World War II. Other aims included: helping students make connections to bias they have come across in their everyday lives; reinforcing student knowledge of the causes of World War II; allowing students to explore artefacts from World War II and the Holocaust.
One of the interesting features of this trip was that students chose whether they were to go on it - so the individuals that came were interested in the content already.
The trip was a full day with travel by underground. Tickets were purchased in advance and it was just a matter of walking to the nearest tube and getting on. With 50 students, teachers had to manage the complications for travelling by tube. There were nervous moments for the adults each time the party all got on or off. Although nerve racking, it worked smoothly because students were prepared and had strict instructions to not get on to the tube without being told by the teacher in charge.
An education officer from the museum broke the group into two to classroom areas where they were briefed about the structure of the day. Everyone was given an audio guide and the two groups set out to view the Holocaust exhibit.
Students were allowed to move through the exhibit at their own pace. Once everyone had been through the party reconvened in the classroom to discuss the treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust, exploring concepts such as racism and persecution. One of the interesting points students discovered was that everyone experiences some level of bias or persecution at some point during their lives.
After lunch the students and teachers moved freely through the WWI exhibit as well as the Battle of Britain exhibit, which students really enjoyed.
This trip was very simple to run and the day was really successful.
