News
Eden Project Visit
12th March 2008
Year 10 and some GCSE art students from Years 10 and 11 have
just returned from a day trip to the Eden Project. The coach journey is long but well worth it!
The aim of the trip for Year 8 was to enhance their understanding of the tropical rainforest ecosystem that they had been studying in class recently and to see how such a far away resource impinges on their own life here in Britain.
Year 8 pupils ready to start their work on Jungle Connections
However they began the day by walking around the Mediterranean Biome and having been warned that it was not as exciting as the Humid Tropic Biome, many were pleasantly surprised by the sights, smells and a very tame robin. Many students began photographing what they saw as Mrs Briggs, our Head of Art teacher had announced that there would be a competition for the photograph which best summed up the day.
Ryan Williams spots a chance to impress with his camera!
After lunch Year 8 had a workshop entitled "Jungle Connections". They were first quizzed on their knowledge on rainforests before being given a bag of rainforest products to classify. Some interesting approaches were noted and whilst some made piles of foods, medicines toiletries etc, others categorised them into ones which destroyed the rainforest such as beef burgers from cattle ranching and those that were sustainable such as rubber tapping. Then it was off to the rainforest to try to list as many products as they could find and to marvel at the shapes, sizes and colours of the vegetation. Cameras clicked away again!
Back in the education centre, their lists were
revealed. One group had found 71 jungle
connections in one hour and had probably missed an equal number such is our
dependence on rainforest resources.
The next exercise was a role play as students had to think about how much each contributor to the chocolate chain should take from a £1.80 bar of Cadbury's chocolate. Whilst the group representing the UK government hurriedly worked out that they were to have 38p in VAT, the others had to guess based on the information about their inputs on their card. The resulting price for the chocolate bar came out to well over £3! When the real figures were finally revealed, and especially the 13p going to the people in the rainforest who actually grew the cocoa pods, the fair trade argument was easily won. How appropriate that it happened to be Fair Trade Fortnight.
Meanwhile the artists were sketching and looking at
various art works, which were scattered throughout the site. Their brief was "Barriers" which they could
interpret as they liked. We will
display some of the best photographs once they have been judged, in the meantime some potential prize winners are shown! So did they enjoy their day?
Two potential prize winning photographs?
Did the pupils enjoy the day? One Year 8 boy said it was the best day in his life (so far)!
