Personal Research

Please add what you have researched for our 'time and place' topic. (This is for the 'I' and 'We' evidence of research that we have to produce in the group presentation).

Rosie

I rang the curator of the Police and Justice Museum located in the Rocks in Sydney. Unfortunately there was not a lot of information on how the police were contacted before the advent of the telephone. Communication methods with the police relied heavily on location factors. A person living a fair distance from the police station would have had few options; you could set out on foot, ride a bike or a horse, or drive a car to the nearest police station. Those living in towns or cities may have had the luxury of patrolling police.

It was interesting to learn that Australia did have its own version of the English police call box and Rebecca emailed me photos of the historic boxes and an early newspaper clipping recounting the use of one by the public.

I also studied the HSIE syllabus and the HSIE Samples of Work book in order to find direct links to the syllabus' aims, subject matter and outcomes to our artefact. This was a valuable exercise as I now feel better equipped to deal with the syllabus in teaching HSIE. I also looked at the educational context of our artefact, ie, cognitive development, psychology in order to ascertain why the learning experience was appropriate for a stage 1/year 1 class.

I also researched primary science textbooks in order to build a working understanding of circuits, cells and batteries.

I participated in group meetings in the library where we discussed ideas, tried to burn down the library, and tried to get various devices to light up, rotate or make noises. As we all lived too far from each other to work together away from the university campus we decided to work co-operatively by taking on different roles individually in order to cover and complete all aspects of the assignment.

Voren

• I visited Marrickville Police to talk to their education officer about the talks they give in schools.
• I interviewed a teacher at my son's school about the police visit they had.
• I interviewed students from that class to see what they learned or remembered.
• I found web images of historical modes of police transport.
• I viewed and transcribed a BBC documentary on police public call boxes.
• I read Emergency Australia: Police by Margaret Metz.
• I visited websites that educate children about police.