Summary
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Credits
The suggested activities can be used to support an enquiry into life on the canal.
History Key Stage 2: Learning objectives
- To understand some of the main reasons why canals were built
- To understand changes in the use of the canal
- To understand the reasons why freight carrying declined in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- To examine why canal transport may represent a sustainable option for the carrying of freight in the 21st century and understand why it has a low carbon footprint.
Activities
Starter activity: Discuss with children the differences between canals and rivers. Introduce the changes in transport and industry in the Victorian period and discuss the development of the canal system.
Pupils trace the Grand Union Canal on a map.
Activity: Use the ‘Life on the canal’ interactive to look for evidence of working and living conditions on the canal.
Pupils examine the related resources and interactive activity to identify what they can infer about the lives of people who lived and worked on the canals in the nineteenth century.
The enquiry should focus on the tasks undertaken by the boat people, the working day, storing and carrying cargo, the canal community and practicalities of living on a boat. Pupils could create a comic strip or drama based on the evidence collected.
Extension: Pupils undertake additional research to create a timeline of changes that could explain why the use of the canals declined in the twentieth century.
Plenary: As a group, pupils identify the pros and cons of a return to the use of canals as a sustainable mode of transport today.
Pupils trace the Grand Union Canal on a map.
Activity: Use the ‘Life on the canal’ interactive to look for evidence of working and living conditions on the canal.
Pupils examine the related resources and interactive activity to identify what they can infer about the lives of people who lived and worked on the canals in the nineteenth century.
The enquiry should focus on the tasks undertaken by the boat people, the working day, storing and carrying cargo, the canal community and practicalities of living on a boat. Pupils could create a comic strip or drama based on the evidence collected.
Extension: Pupils undertake additional research to create a timeline of changes that could explain why the use of the canals declined in the twentieth century.
Plenary: As a group, pupils identify the pros and cons of a return to the use of canals as a sustainable mode of transport today.
Design and Technology/Science at Key Stage 2: Learning objectives
- To understand how design can solve problems
- To understand how design must consider what products are used for and the needs of the user.
Activities
Starter activity: Show pupils images of locks. Discuss how locks are used to raise a boat from one level to another; introduce the concept of forces in the canal environment, and how they were, and are still, used to move boats.
Activity: Discuss the obstacles the Inclined Plane Boat Lift was designed to solve. Pupils could make a model of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift.
Write a newspaper report on the opening of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift focusing on the impact it will have on the efficiency of the canal. Incorporate images from the opening of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift.
Activity: Discuss the obstacles the Inclined Plane Boat Lift was designed to solve. Pupils could make a model of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift.
Write a newspaper report on the opening of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift focusing on the impact it will have on the efficiency of the canal. Incorporate images from the opening of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift.