Now, before and after

One important higher level skill in Geography is for pupils to apply their understanding of processes to describe and explain how places change over time. To encourage pupils to apply their understanding try this task. Firstly show pupils a picture of a scene today (like the one shown below) and ask them to describe it. Then ask pupils to hypothesise what this place might have looked like five years ago and to explain why they think this.Finally pose ask pupils to predict how this place might be different in one hundred years time. What is possible and what is probable?This is a really versatile technique that can be applied to a range of topics, using different time scales to suit. It also provides a great way of extending the more able pupils that you teach by adding even more factors for them to consider. For example how might this place be different in one hundred years time if global warming continues?