john anderson
29-02-2008, 23:12
I have taught Technical Education at Ardrossan Academy in Scotland for twenty years.
I am fortunate to be a teacher of Technical education as it is a subject which can build the self-confidence and self esteem of all pupils, perhaps especially, the less able pupils.
Often, I am teaching pupils who have personal, family and/or school problems. Technical Education can be a subject to be looked forward to by less able pupils.
It can be a subject that can excite, stimulate and motivate when little else in school interests them.
One year ago I started building a Technical Department website.
It was my intention to make this site different from the usual school website. Pupil centered, fun, exciting with individual photographs of the pupils and their work.
As a scale model aficionado I have tried to motivate my pupils by sharing my enthusiasm for this subject with them.
I was well aware of HMS Hood. However, it was only when I saw the documentary of The Hood and The Bismarck on the Discovery Channel that I thought about building HMS Hood as part of the pupil’s coursework.
Built from scratch, the enthusiasm of these 14-15 year olds when making the Hood was something to behold. The story of the great ship and its end really left its mark on these young people.
This I think shows that scale model building can be just as enthralling and exciting for today’s youngsters as it has for generations past. Some of these pupils are termed challenging in today’s parlance, however the build consumed their attention and their behavior was superb.
One can tell from the looks on the pupil’s faces on the new website that they are very proud of the work they have produced. It has to be remembered that these youngsters would rather suffer a death of a thousand cuts than be photographed and shown on a website doing something which they consider ‘uncool’. This proves that battleships are ‘cool’.
I have tried where possible, to relate the pupils work to the Clyde area, or to Scotland in terms of design, history, technology and manufacture. This, I believe makes the work much more relevant and significant to them. This is another reason why HMS Hood was chosen.
In year 3 we limbered up with a pirate ship. The connection to Scotland was that the famous pirate Captain Kidd was born in Scotland.
We then tackled the legendary HMS Hood in year 4. The great ship was built only a few miles up the Clyde coast from the school. Before we embarked upon this adventure, many people informed me that these mixed ability classes would never be able to deal with the wide variety of skills required to undertake such a task. The finished models sure proved them wrong.
.
In the last 3 years around 60 HMS Hoods have been built, with a few HMS Prince of Wales thrown in. In houses throughout Ardrossan now, large 1 metre long scratch built Hood models can be found on mantelpieces, windowsills, coffee tables etc.
There is a picture on the site of two of my pupils, Geovan and David, proudly showing their finished HMS Hood models to the Head teacher in her office. However the Headteacher was concerned about how the two of them would carry their models home without damaging them. She was so concerned she phoned a taxi for them. This story has now gone down in folklore of how the two pupils sat in the back of the large taxi with the HMS Hoods in the boot and being dropped off at their respective homes to great acclaim.
Of course, when my other pupils found out about the taxi, they too wanted a taxi ride home with their ‘Mighty Hood’. They were not best pleased when the Headteacher rebuffed all other taxi requests.
The strange thing is that although the pupils had a free choice of project, eg table, cabinet etc. no one ever chose not to build a battleship.
One can find the site at http://www.ardtech.co.uk HMS Hood is to be found in the 4th year link. To show the pupils the massive size of the Hood and a feeling of perspective, I have placed a Sketchup CAD 3d model of the ship into a 3d model of Ardrossan Academy. This can be found on the Cad/Cag/HMS Hood visits Ardrossan Academy.
Kind regards,
John Anderson
________________________________________
I am fortunate to be a teacher of Technical education as it is a subject which can build the self-confidence and self esteem of all pupils, perhaps especially, the less able pupils.
Often, I am teaching pupils who have personal, family and/or school problems. Technical Education can be a subject to be looked forward to by less able pupils.
It can be a subject that can excite, stimulate and motivate when little else in school interests them.
One year ago I started building a Technical Department website.
It was my intention to make this site different from the usual school website. Pupil centered, fun, exciting with individual photographs of the pupils and their work.
As a scale model aficionado I have tried to motivate my pupils by sharing my enthusiasm for this subject with them.
I was well aware of HMS Hood. However, it was only when I saw the documentary of The Hood and The Bismarck on the Discovery Channel that I thought about building HMS Hood as part of the pupil’s coursework.
Built from scratch, the enthusiasm of these 14-15 year olds when making the Hood was something to behold. The story of the great ship and its end really left its mark on these young people.
This I think shows that scale model building can be just as enthralling and exciting for today’s youngsters as it has for generations past. Some of these pupils are termed challenging in today’s parlance, however the build consumed their attention and their behavior was superb.
One can tell from the looks on the pupil’s faces on the new website that they are very proud of the work they have produced. It has to be remembered that these youngsters would rather suffer a death of a thousand cuts than be photographed and shown on a website doing something which they consider ‘uncool’. This proves that battleships are ‘cool’.
I have tried where possible, to relate the pupils work to the Clyde area, or to Scotland in terms of design, history, technology and manufacture. This, I believe makes the work much more relevant and significant to them. This is another reason why HMS Hood was chosen.
In year 3 we limbered up with a pirate ship. The connection to Scotland was that the famous pirate Captain Kidd was born in Scotland.
We then tackled the legendary HMS Hood in year 4. The great ship was built only a few miles up the Clyde coast from the school. Before we embarked upon this adventure, many people informed me that these mixed ability classes would never be able to deal with the wide variety of skills required to undertake such a task. The finished models sure proved them wrong.
.
In the last 3 years around 60 HMS Hoods have been built, with a few HMS Prince of Wales thrown in. In houses throughout Ardrossan now, large 1 metre long scratch built Hood models can be found on mantelpieces, windowsills, coffee tables etc.
There is a picture on the site of two of my pupils, Geovan and David, proudly showing their finished HMS Hood models to the Head teacher in her office. However the Headteacher was concerned about how the two of them would carry their models home without damaging them. She was so concerned she phoned a taxi for them. This story has now gone down in folklore of how the two pupils sat in the back of the large taxi with the HMS Hoods in the boot and being dropped off at their respective homes to great acclaim.
Of course, when my other pupils found out about the taxi, they too wanted a taxi ride home with their ‘Mighty Hood’. They were not best pleased when the Headteacher rebuffed all other taxi requests.
The strange thing is that although the pupils had a free choice of project, eg table, cabinet etc. no one ever chose not to build a battleship.
One can find the site at http://www.ardtech.co.uk HMS Hood is to be found in the 4th year link. To show the pupils the massive size of the Hood and a feeling of perspective, I have placed a Sketchup CAD 3d model of the ship into a 3d model of Ardrossan Academy. This can be found on the Cad/Cag/HMS Hood visits Ardrossan Academy.
Kind regards,
John Anderson
________________________________________