Q for the teachers. Yr 7 volcano model

Ha, very apt as we sit here finishing off a Yr 7 Volcano model. Your DS isn't in West Kent at a certain boys' grammar school by any chance bonkers?

My DS hates this sort of thing - he won't have learnt anything more than he has done already by researching which volcano to make. OTOH my DD (9) is a far more kinaesthetic learner and has been begging to help. She'd probably have done the whole thing for him given half a chance!

Aaargh, rubbish capitalisation and bolding of type there, should be ashamed of myself...I'm sure you are going to be brilliant at supporting your DS, maybe you might get some art mojo back at the same time?! I think my school was the same, when I arrived they weren't allowed to use colour pencils until year 10!! It is so sad that so little worth was put (and still is) on art as a way of getting young people involved, learning about communication, themselves...theres just so much, if it's done well it shouldn't discourage anyone from being creative, even if they think they aren't any good!

Sorry OP, could go on for ages, hasn't helped your volcano making!! Better go to bed before I get all misty eyed about how much I love teaching (it's only cause I have had a week off!!, come next week i will be all - 'right, see that tree, go and draw it. QUIETLY!!)

whilst making models isn't necessarily useful in exam halls, I disagree that it would be useful in work - for example, to work out how to make a model or a volcano you need to
Visualise the layout of something which you can only see from one angle (in a diagram, or photo)
plan ahead, working out what goes where
Source materials, for example look at a bottle and work out how to make it into a lava chamber
Problem solve and experimentThink about the way materials work together - so how will a particular tyoe of glue stick two differelt materials together
negotiatebargain with your parents to help you make it/clear up the mess!

All good skills, surely?

missmakesstuff - love everyone coming in to mess up your art room!

As for me "art lessons" would be overstating it. if you were considered "good" at art, ie had some sort of natural eye, then you were given a bit of encouragement. If you like me you didn't have the first idea then art lessons were literally "draw an animal"; "design a food carton label". We didn't learn drawing techniques, perspective, photography, pottery, oils, watercolours, anything. Literally were not taught despite there being a big art room, kiln, facilities etc. No wonder I couldn't wait to drop it, it was the only exam I ever failed and as I was the class swot people loved seeing my name at the bottom of the list for the art results.

Funny how the psychology of school sticks with you, hence my approach to this thread. ds's primary school has a dedicated art room and I am so pleased he will get a proper shot at seeing what he could acheive and be good at even if he also shows no natural talent.

I agree abelina, you could give them a choice of tasks, but as goblinchild says, some would always choose the same way to do things and wouldn't challenge themselves. Sorry for going off the deep end too, it's just I always have to defend my subject from people who think it isn't academic enough, or is just colouring in, messing about that shouldn't go past year 9. It's actually a sad fact that lots of primary aged children don't get a lot of art teaching however, as there isn't the time, or the focus on it, especially in areas with the 11 plus. I do think it's sad that you were turned off by your art lessons, I work in a grammar, and so often I have the boys tell me they can't draw, or a re rubbish at art - even worse, the parents tell me they can't! We try and get them to try a bit of everything, drawing, sculpture, photography, etc, to see where their talents lie - it won't all be easy for them, but unless they give it a go they won't know - plus sometimes just the making is enough, they might learn something in the process of trying to do it - it doesn't matter that they are going to end up with a big lump of papier mache!
Mind you, I sort of agree with the volcano thing, I would love to suggest other ways of getting the kids to do it, not involving tonnes of paper and glue all over my lovely art room at lunchtime but they don't ask me...!

Loshad - but the OP didn't say how detailed it had to be - just 'make a model of a volcano'. Very vague. Doesn't say if it needs labeling etc.

If it were me, I'd do a cross section of the chamber- easy to make with cardboard and label each part as you go up from the base to the top.

Thanks for responses Goblinchild, all v interesting. The thing is, if we all genuinely have different learning styles, then why not use those styles to learn? So if my way is reading / researching, writing up and presenting, why make me slave over a model which will add nil to my learning but everything to my stress levels?

Of course if you apply my argument the other way round then some people might like to do nothing but make models / draw pictures and that isn't necessarily practical in the world of work, or exam halls. Those people need therefore to be stretched by ... reading, researching and writing. Not having those skills could seriously hold them back in life (could, not definitely would). Whereas my inability to make a decent model hasn't had much of an impact on my career and life to date. Though I forsee trouble when ds is in secondary school ...

I am very happy to have my views challenged and am really interested in responses here. I know I'm a bit of a dinosaur on all things education policy, prob because I found the traditional way a good and easy route for me personally. Apologies to OP for thread hijack.

Abelia
'But I think it would be good if pupils were given the option to extend themselves in different ways. So the homework is to produce something about volcanoes (yes I know that's too vague). The medium is up to the pupil - written, spoken, video, montage, model. Everyone has to demonstrate understanding of how volcanoes happen, the differing parts, their effects on local population etc. Would that work? (genuine question)'

It's a great idea, and that's what some of our learning tasks involve. But some children would always do a powerpoint for everything.
So we try and encourage them to think more diversely and rise to a challenge with confidence.

vintage - a time honoured bit of fun but unlikely to be in sufficent depth for the op's ds

Seriously?
I have an entire geology lesson I teach with different forms of chocolate and sweets. Very memorable. My DD did make her volcano out of cake. With labels.
One of the things about being a successful learner is to be able to use different learning styles. Which means practising them.
If you are a visual learner and only ever use that strategy, you are losing out on being able to apply kinaesthetic or auditory skills. So your learning style is incomplete.
We give different learning tasks as homework, but the children have to choose one from each category over the half term. They can't always choose to draw a picture. Part of the job as a teacher is to broaden children't learning experiences.

Have some and dig out the bubble wrap.

Oh wow!!!

This is sooooo easy and your child will get so many points for doing this.

Get him to get all of the tray/soil/jar and ingredients at home and then take them to school and do the experiment in class.

So easy - I might do it with the kids tomorrow.

playdough is your friend here.
I'm a teacher and i hate it when my dc get model making homeworks - takes hours for the amount of learning involved.
Set them once per 7 years of schooling myself (model of a cell y7 second homework, then never again)

x-post. No, I am not expecting teachers to divvy up the types of work and allocate them themselves. But I think it would be good if pupils were given the option to extend themselves in different ways. So the homework is to produce something about volcanoes (yes I know that's too vague). The medium is up to the pupil - written, spoken, video, montage, model. Everyone has to demonstrate understanding of how volcanoes happen, the differing parts, their effects on local population etc. Would that work? (genuine question)

Just get some card from the recycling bin, make it into a cone shape and then get your ds to paint/colour it in. Perhaps, he could stuff some orange tissue paper out of the top as if it's erupting.

Aha!! Or (b), get him to draw one on the pc and if the teacher said it had to be a model, get him to tell the teacher it's a computer model.

missmakesstuff - definitely not my intention to patronise or come across that way. I was hopeless at art (we were never taught it, just expected to create with nil direction or input from our teacher) and so I definitely have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about it. I think art is fabulous and would love to be any good at it. That includes model making, which I don't think should be confined to primary school per se.

But I do think that telling the whole class to make a model as a supposedly easy task to assist with their learning is short sighted and errs on the side of "this is easy and you will like doing it" which is in itself rather patronising. If I had been in an art class and shown model making, techniques, ideas and given this as homework then fine. But sitting in a Geography lesson learning about volcanos and then told to make a model of one doesn't take the learning from that lesson and extend it. It asks pupils to show that they know what a volcano looks like in a one-size-fits-all way. Some people will love the model making and excel at it. Others will sweat blood and tears over it and still produce a rather mediocre result and not have shown that they have understood what they were taught and taken that learning further.

sorry, x posts, but do you think teachers have the time to divide up the whole class into the 5 different types of learner and give them different tasks for the hols, whilst trying to avoid parents asking why their child has been given a much more difficult/time consuming task than others? Would be lovely if we did, but not very likely!

abelia I am an art teacher and I think it's a bit patronising to suggest that model making is a primary school task which shouldn't be carried on into secondary school - (oh, except art of course, cause that's just messing about and colouring in) and nothing can be learnt or remembered by making a model - Things like this do have a point - and whilst some, like you, learnt from writing about a topic, some would learn better from doing, re-creating a 3d model from a diagram or photograph, as they are kinasthetic learners.

Then there are the others that will learn from looking at the model and seeing it work. and those that just like making a mess and making trouble for their parents over half term

Speaking as someone that has half of year 7 in my art room painting these volcanoes and mosques, I would be very happy to see just one cake version!

the thing is you talk about how they will remember lava flow and ash deposit, magma chamber etc via the medium of model making... but this is to be achieved by using bubble wrap, newspaper, cardboard etc. Perhaps it is because I am artistically hopeless but if a teacher gave me now or 20 yrs ago this selection of materials and asked me to make a volcano and thought that this would help me remember all about volcanoes, they would be very mistaken. The angst of trying to create a decent enough model not to be laughed out of the classroom would be all that would remain with me. If however they suggested I write about the process, reference a recent or famous eruption and its effects and draw a cross section with labels (colouring in optional ) that would have a better and longer term effect.

So my frothing at the mouth rant is about this being given as a blanket task - everyone must make a model. Well perhaps different people would learn better with different tasks - write, draw, create. But asking us all to make a model is misguided imo. Rant over!

'oh good grief. I'm not a teacher or the parent of a secondary school child but this just seems to be a waste of most people's time and frankly something that should remain in primary school. '

That's why i asked if you wanted a real answer or just a rant and some I'd hate to get in the way of a real frothing-at-the-mouth session.

I'm a teacher, which is why I was asking.
There are different ways of remembering information, labelling a diagram is 2D and visual.
To make a model of a volcano, he should research different types and decide which one he's making.
belmont.sd62.bc.ca/teacher/geology12/photos/volcanoes/volcano_types.jpg
Then you can use different materials to build up layers, create the magma chamber, decide the different pipes and where the lava will flow.
All this creates a more meaningful and 3D representation of the volcano in the memory. He will remember better that each eruption leaves a deposit of ash and lava, changing the size and shape of the volcano, that the magma chamber is the source of the magma which erupts...all sorts of essential information if he is to understand volcanoes. If he's going to choose GCSE geography, he'll be covering this again.
You don't need special materials other than a bit of glue; newspaper, bubble wrap, cardboard, plastic bottle, that sort of stuff.