UPD8

Vanished - a blitz mystery

Learning objectives

Objectives

Personal Capability:
Creativity and problem solving – to think creatively when interpreting evidence, asking questions such as Why? How? and What if?

Science and History:
• To use skills and knowledge from science and history to interpret evidence and draw conclusions.
• To recognise that the range of evidence available can affect the conclusion reached.

Success criteria
To be successful the students will:

• Ask questions in relation to evidence such as Why? How? and What if?
• Use science and history knowledge when interpreting evidence.
• Reach conclusions based on consideration of more than one piece of evidence.
• Understand that additional evidence may have an effect on the conclusion reached.

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Curriculum link

KS3 Science National Curriculum

Key concepts:
1.1 – Scientific thinking
b – Critically analysing and evaluating evidence from observations and experiments.

Key processes:
2.2 – Critical understanding of evidence
a – Obtain, record and analyse data from a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including ICT sources, and use their findings to provide evidence for scientific explanations.

2.3 – Communication
a – Use appropriate methods, including ICT, to communicate scientific information and contribute to presentations and discussions about scientific issues.

Range and content:
3.1 – Energy, electricity and forces
b – Forces are interactions between objects and can affect their shape and motion

3.2 – Chemical and material behaviour
a – The particle model provides explanations for the different physical properties and behaviour of matter.
c – Elements and compounds show characteristic chemical properties and patterns in their behaviour.

KS2 Science National Curriculum

Breadth of study statement
2a – Use appropriate scientific language . . . to communicate ideas and explain the behaviour of living things, materials, phenomena and processes.

Sc1 Scientific enquiry
Ideas and evidence in science
1a – That science is about thinking creatively to explain how living and non-living things work and to establish links between causes and effects.

Investigative skills – considering evidence and evaluating
2i – Make comparisons and identify simple patterns or associations in their own observations and measurements or other data.
2j – Use observations, evidence or other data to draw conclusions.
2l – Use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain observations, measurements or other data or conclusions.
2m – Review their work and the work of others and describe its significance and limitations.

Sc3 Materials and their properties
Grouping and classifying materials
1a – To compare everyday materials and objects on the basis of their material properties . . . and to relate these properties to everyday uses of the materials.

Key Stage 3 History National Curriculum

Key concepts:
1.1 – Chronological understanding
b – Developing a sense of period through describing and analysing the relationships between the characteristic features of periods and societies.

1.2 – Cultural, ethnic and religious diversity
a – Understanding the diverse experiences and ideas, beliefs and attitudes of men, women and children in past societies and how these have shaped the world.

Key processes:
2.2 – Using evidence
a – identify, select and use a range of historical sources, including textual, visual and oral sources, artefacts and the historic environment.
b – evaluate the sources used in order to reach reasoned conclusions.

2.3 – Communicating about the past
a – present and organise accounts and explanations about the past that are coherent, structured and substantial, using chronological conventions and historical vocabulary.
b – communicate their knowledge and understanding of history in a variety of ways, using chronological conventions and historical vocabulary.

Curriculum opportunities:
4e – make links between history and other subjects and areas of the curriculum including citizenship.

Key Stage 2 History National Curriculum

Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past:
2a – about characteristic features of the periods and societies studied, including the ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children in the past.
2b – about the social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of the societies studied, in Britain and the wider world.

Historical enquiry:
4a – how to find out about the events, people and changes studied from an appropriate range of sources of information, including ICT based sources (for example, documents, printed sources, CD ROMs, databases, pictures and photographs, music, artefacts, historic buildings and visits to museums, galleries and sites).
4b – to ask and answer questions, and to select and record information relevant to the focus of the enquiry.

Organisation and communication:
5c – communicate their knowledge and understanding of history in a variety of ways (for example, drawing, writing, by using ICT).

Breadth of study:
11b – Britain since 1930 – A study of the impact of the Second World War on social and technological changes that have taken place since 1930, on the lives of men, women and children from different sections of society.

Running the activity

Introducing the Overall Task

Introduce and discuss the learning objectives for the task. Emphasise that the task is about thinking creatively when interpreting evidence, both historical and scientific, asking questions such as Why?, How? and What if?

Use the stimulus sheet to introduce the context for the task. Second World War siren “soundtrack” can be found on www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1817902-air-raid-siren-sound-effect-wav
Tell students they must use the evidence from various sources to help the air raid warden solve the mystery.


Running the Main Tasks

Organise the students to work in teams of 4 or 5.

Use page 2 – Mystery! to introduce the situation after the air raid. Ask the group to discuss and feed back possible explanations for what has happened.

Explain to the groups that they will discuss and feed back on various evidence sheets about the situation at Number 37. They must consider how their view on the situation changes as new evidence is presented. The sheets are:

- Evidence from page 3 - The next day . . ., which indicates that Number 37 was not damaged in the air raid.
- Evidence from page 4 - More Evidence, about the damage at Number 37 being caused by a Molotov cocktail which didn’t catch fire.
- Evidence from page 5 – Liquid Evidence, which suggests that the liquid used in the Molotov cocktail was ethanol (an alcohol). A Molotov cocktail is a crude incendiary device consisting of a bottle filled with a flammable liquid and a means of ignition. See possible practical activities.
- Evidence from page 6 – Family Evidence, which suggests that the family are immigrants to Britain from Germany or Austria.

Use page 7 – One Week Later . . ., to round up the discussion about the different sources of evidence and to consolidate the idea that anti-German feeling could have been a factor in the situation at Number 37.

Ask the students to summarise their interpretations based on the evidence by completing the Air Raid Protection Warden Report on page 8. This could be completed either individually or as a group task.


Reviewing the Task

Discuss with the students the range and types of evidence they used. What science based evidence and what historical evidence was available? Which evidence had most value and why? What questions was it useful to ask when interpreting evidence?

Involve the students in reviewing the task using the assessment for learning Smart Grid on page 9.


Possible practical activities

In relation to the evidence about the liquid used in the Molotov cocktail (Page 5) students could be involved in testing “the liquid found at Number 37” i.e. ethanol by:

1 Igniting a few drops of ethanol placed on a suitable container e.g. metal lid or small foil tray. For primary aged students it is recommended that this is carried out as a demonstration.
2 Mixing a few drops of ethanol with water in a test tube or other suitable container to show that the ethanol is completely miscible.

Safety Note: Students should wear suitable eye protection and tie back long hair and avoid loose garments. When burning ethanol stand the container on sand in a larger metal tray. Ethanol is highly flammable; it burns with a blue flame which is often difficult to see. It’s important to ensure that the ethanol cannot be ignited accidentally and has burnt away completely before touching the containers. Only a few drops of ethanol should be ignited. Petrol should not be used for practical work. Cooking oil should not be burnt but could be used to compare miscibility.

For guidance on practical work with primary aged students see Be Safe published by ASE.

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