Moray House PGDE students were set the challenge of designing a workshop for school pupils visiting Dynamic Earth (S1-S6).  The students worked in cross disciplinary teams with a design and technology team leader, leading a group of students which included maths, sciences and design technology PGDE. 

Our team developed a workshop called Jailhouse Rocks where the learners will be given a selection of rocks and are asked to identify them.  They will have to make use of witness reports of fictional crimes committed by the rocks to help them identify the rock.  An example of one of the witness reports is that the ‘culprit’ (the rock) was seen flying through the air and hit the victim on the head – this was a meteorite.  Other ‘culprits’ included a rock sticking out of the ground which a cyclist hit and fell off their bike. 

Noticing that the Dynamic Earth staff are very engaging and game for a laugh we thought the workshop could be developed by getting the staff to dress up as a witness and perform each role.

The workshop finishes up with a millionaire style quiz using the voting pads and this allows the teachers to assess learning. 

This workshop was chosen by Dynamic Earth as the winner of the competition.

Ryan Mackerracher and Julia Davidson