Enquiry-based resources for teachers

Key content:

The nature of enquiry learning is that your class enquiry will be specific to your class. Thus these resources are not a set of prescriptive lesson plans. However in order that your students are guided through a robust and meaningful enquiry it’s imperative that your subject knowledge is robust. The teacher resource here is designed to give the teacher reliable background subject knowledge from which to teach the topic. Some worksheets and ideas for teaching are included as well as an overriding PowerPoint to help you structure your content. The key content for the enquiry is tied to the Chesswatch webpages of the QMUL website. It is worth beginning your preparation by reviewing the ChessWatch website pages.

To begin your enquiry-based learning activity:

 An enquiry would usually begin with some stimulus material. Use stimulus sheets 1, 2 and 3 to encourage open-ended questions about the River Chess:

Here are some possible questions. Some fit a more ecological / physical geography perspective whilst others are more broad-ranging, and require extensive understanding of the human environment.

• How healthy is the River Chess?
• The River Chess seems to be disappearing – should we care?
• Who stole the River Chess?
• How can we create a sustainable future for the River Chess?
• Is the water in your glass worth more than the water in the river?
• How much is water worth?

Work with your students to agree the question (like the trunk of a tree) and the key areas of investigation which will enable the class to get to grips with the enquiry question (like the branches of the tree).

Reminding students to ask ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ is helpful.

Ensure that the enquiry question gives scope to scale the Blooms chart and involves elements of evaluation and judgement.

Pick the best three or four questions and use mind maps on large pieces of paper to further develop the question base and hence build the enquiry.

Lesson themes and module plan

You might want to guide your students enquiry to cover certain themes or learning outcomes. We have produced a module plan called 'Teaching the River Chess' to help you decide which aspects of the River Chess you might want to focus on with your students. The plan is divided into five different themes:

• Hydrology in chalk catchments
• River Health
• Human interactions in the drainage basin
• Managing water demand
• Creating sustainable water futures 

Slide deck for teachers

For each theme we signpost relevant slides in our River Chess slide deck for teachers, and useful handouts and notes in our student resources area.

Key resources from stakeholders

In order to answer their questions pupils will need to research their own documents and material about the River Chess as well as use the material on the ChessWatch website. Below we have tabulated some weblinks to key resources from stakeholders that the students could use. These resources vary from detailed reports to shorter articles. We wouldn’t recommend working through these in order. Instead the students should choose the resources that might be the most pertinent to their line of enquiry.

Key resources from stakeholders [PDF 331KB]