The group took part in a ‘Shipwrecked’ session today where they were stranded on Grendon desert Island. They had to solve clues to find survival items positioned around the grounds. The students worked independently or in a pair to find 36 items to bring back to the study centre.
Everyone had to deliberate and decide on which 10 items them would choose to help them survive on the island and justify their reasons. Then the whole group used their speaking and listening skills to argue persuasively as to why their items should stay. This involved communication, co-operation, reasoning, justifying and compromising skills. Eventually 10 items were agreed upon, including an axe, medicine, rope, knife, matches and a flare.
Here is some of the students discussion, choices and explanations.
Flare – if any boats or planes come near the island, they’ll know we’re there – Tommy and Chris.
Medicine – If you feel ill or get bitten by a bug, you could get infected – Adam.
Bandages – get rid of these as we have medicine already – Tommy.
Matches – they light up really fast and make fire to cook fish – Dontell.
Axe – to cut down trees and chop up food before cooking – Tommy and Chris. Adam – I agree, the axe can be used to make shelter too. The knife isn’t as good for that.
Gun – you can aim the gun to catch food but not the axe – Dontell. Chris – it’s too loud and would scare the animals. Adam - use the knife and sneak around the animals rather than the gun.
Chris and Tommy – use the compass to find out which direction you are going in and to find your way back. You need a map with it too. Keep the map – Dontell.
Bottled water – get rid of it as most plants have water in, coconuts have milk – Chris
Blankets – they protect against insects – Adam. Use them to cover the shelter – Chris
Clothes – all agreed, we can set them on fire to signal a ship if we need to, we’d have the clothes we arrived in.
Torch/candle – we don’t need these as we have matches. Chris. Adam – I’d rather have a torch but the batteries might wear out.
Rope – we can use it as a fishing line and to help make shelter – Adam.
Fishing rod – we don’t need it as trees are made of wood and we have the axe to cut it down, use the knife to smooth it – Adam. But we need the hook from it, we can’t make that – Chris. We can use worms and maggots for bait – Dontell. We could make a spear – Tommy.
Fruit – We wouldn’t need this as there would be fruit on the island – Chris. It would be good to have a bowl though – Adam
Hat – we don’t need that, we can use the clothes to make one. We don’t want to get sunstroke – Tommy
Scissors – to cut the fish – Adam.
