This term has proved to be an exciting time in Year 8 Big Ideas. Together, the Year 8s have traversed over 800 years of human history, encountering plague, famine, religious conflict, colonisation, industrialisation, war and depression along the way!
In Week 2, the Year 8’s battled the Black Death of 1347. Students contracted the plague, which was then spread through trade. They struggled with the ineffectiveness of Medieval remedies and encountered the strange and disgusting customs associated with staying healthy in the Middle Ages. Some medieval manors successfully survived the plague and gained immunity against the disease, whilst others succumbed to the ferocious pestilence of the Black Death.
In Week 3, the students met their ruler in 1517 - King Henry VIII! They learned about the message of Martin Luther in his ’95 Theses and experienced the twists and turns of religious loyalty in England during the reign of Henry VIII - along with the varied romantic life of their monarch! They dispensed sage advice to the king via Twitter - many wisely recommending that he remain single for a while!
In Week 4, medieval manors were transformed into countries and the students raced to form empires during the ‘Age of Empires’ colonisation challenge. They found that by colonising countries occupied only by native populations, they could access new resources such as slaves, stone, iron, coal and gold - all of which would prove essential in the coming weeks. Germany proved particularly efficient at colonising multiple nations and it amassed numerous resources, quickly proving to be a power player in the World Communities Game!
Week 5 saw the onset of the Industrial Revolution! Those nations who had managed to gain new resources during the previous week’s colonisation challenge were able to use these to their advantage, putting their coal and iron to good use to develop factories. Savvy entrepreneurs took advantage of readily available child labour resources and Germany drew even further ahead of the crowd, pursued strenuously by Britain. Stumbling blocks such as the 1833 Factories Act which saw limitations placed on the use of Child Labour proved to be a challenge for those countries operating multiple factories, but with clever negotiation tactics, most countries managed to increase their resources during the Industrial revolution.
One of history’s most strenuous challenges faced the Year 8s in Week 7 with the dawn of 1914 - and the Great War. Germany’s increasingly militaristic attitude along with their surplus of military and wealth tokens put them in the ideal position to attack more vulnerable nations - starting with Belguim. The countries were assigned to the alliances of the Triple Entente and the Central Powers and had to cooperate across their country boundaries for the first time. Though struggling with this initially, the alliance of the Triple Entente quickly grew in both power and purpose and began to coordinate attacks on Germany, culminating in her surrender far before the historically accurate date of 1918! The entire of America into the war allowed the allies to then focus their attention on bringing down the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, which they did with gusto. A decisive allied victory then left the victors to divide up the spoils - and the countries that had belonged to the Central Powers walked away with almost nothing.
Week 7 arrived and the Year 8s worked through the postwar years and the onset of the Great Depression. They had to deal with rising unemployment and homelessness as well as the disintegration of trading relationships. They battled sudden drops in resources and saw previously powerful nations crumble under the economic pressure of the Great Depression.
With a couple of weeks left to go, the students have some exciting challenges ahead of them and we look forward to seeing how they face up to the tough times ahead!
Miss E Reynolds
Learning Innovator
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