Brunel: End of unit self-marking factual test This is a great way to test knowledge at the end of the topic. Each student in the class is given 30 randomly selected questions from a database in mutliple-choice format. At the end of the exercise, the teacher can access all the scores at once to put…

Video worksheet: “Brunel” by Jeremy Clarkson A worksheet to accompany the excellent documentary on Brunel by Jeremy Clarkson. I get students to play the Horatio Ramsbottom Game, then we watch this and complete the worksheet, then students choose whether to base their imaginary interview on Brunel or Ramsbottom. Based on their choice, they then complete…

Head2Head Virtual Interview with Captain James Cook | Lesson IdeasThis interactive application allows students to interview historical characters directly! In this way, different groups of students can learn about different aspects of their life and career. There are plenty of lesson ideas to choose from.

Online Simulation: Fame and Fortune – A Wild West Adventure! | Factual Test In this major online simulation, which can be played over several lessons (my students took three hours), students take on the role of a pioneer eager to find fame and fortune by heading into the “Wild West”. By completing a detailed worksheet as they proceed, and…

End of Unit Quiz I give students 10 minutes at the start of the lesson to try to complete the quiz. Anyone completing the quiz within the available time gets a score based on the amount of minutes left on the clock. They can then move on to the first lesson task, whatever that happens…

Task – Winner’s podium: who was the greatest figure of the Regency period? Choose who you think are the three most significant figures from the Regency Period you have learned about. Use this PowerPoint Template to produce a poster explaining your choices to share with the rest of the class in a display. Designed to accompany the…

Time Travel Holiday Package to Regency London In this competitive activity, the class is arranged into groups and each one has to design a ‘Time Travel Holiday; package to Regency England, designed to appeal to a wide range of customers. Each group has to choose a different set of locations and people drawn from the simulation,…

Can you design your own Western Movie / Theme Park / Boardgame? To consolidate knowledge, students convert what they have learned into one of three projects, outlined here in detail.

Who were the greatest characters of the Wild West? I use this as an extension activity for students who complete the simulation within the three hours which I allocate to it. Students have to research various characters and then choose one “Cowboy”, one “Cowgirl” and one Native American who will be included in their film…

This new simulation replaces an earlier game and includes more features and multimedia to bring it up to date.

This new simulation is an updated and relaunched version of an earlier game with additional features and multimedia.

Horatio Ramsbottom: Victorian Entrepreneur In this newly relaunched version of the popular simulation, students take a series of decisions about how to run their new business. How should the workers be treated? What transport system should be used? Should they invest in the triangular trade and the Great Exhibition? Complete with a worksheet and follow-up…

This exercise gets students to compare and contrast the different pirate codes side by side to help decide which pirate had the most reasonable terms of service. A teacher version is available.

The Pirate Code: Overview In this activity students will get an overview of some of the central rules of Pirates and consider why they existed. A teacher version is available.

End of Unit Project: Instructions / Markscheme To round the unit off, students produce an individual research project bringing their findings together using this helpsheet. The mark scheme is based closely on those used for the ActiveHistory Mysteries so that students can build upon their previous progress.

The Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones, the Kraken and Calypso | Primary Sources on the Flying Dutchman Students are presented with information about the ways in which various sea myths are depicted in the film. Firstly, we use some primary sources which show the evolution of the Flying Dutchman myth to test the accuracy of the…

  …-Wink-… / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND Table: Comparisons and Contrasts between different pirates and / or Venn: Comparisons and Contrasts between different pirates This could be used as an extension activity if time is pressing, but otherwise should be used as a standard part of the unit.

…-Wink-… / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND Part of the Pirates unit. This study unit allows students to investigate the key question “How useful is the film ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ to historians investigating the ‘Golden Age’ of Piracy? An interactive strategy game forms the hub of the unit, with students investigating the following key elements…

Weaponry in the films: Evidence of Accuracy | Video Clip The Pirates of the Caribbean films do a good job in using historically accurate weaponry. This worksheet and this accompanying video clip helps students understand how and why.

Randomiser / Pirate Insult Tool – this useful tool helps you to choose random positions on the board for each ship at the start of the game and if they get hit by hurricanes / the Kraken. The ‘insult’ tool is one of the ‘forfeits’ that appears in the game.

This quiz is designed to accompany the Pirates Strategy Game.

Student teams succeed in their ‘attacks’ only if they can correctly answer factual questions testing their knowledge of the topic. This detailed bank of questions is broken down into various categories focusing on particular worksheets in this unit.

Game Rules – The full explanation of how the game works in class is provided here. It requires just a bit of preparation – the students will love it!

Each ‘crew’ pool their findings to complete this worksheet, which encourages them to test key points about Jack Sparrow to determine if they match what we know about one or more of the pirates that they have now researched. This is followed by a quiz round which enables each ‘ship’ and its crew to win…

Research instructions | ‘Wanted Poster’ Template The first thing we investigate is how far “Jack Sparrow” is based on actual pirates. The class conducts a discussion about the sorts of things we know about “Jack Sparrow” from “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Students are then allocated different pirates to research. They record their findings in the…

This worksheet gets students familiar with the key areas to be investigated. They organise themselves into ‘crews’, elect a ‘captain’ in preparation for the strategy game at the heart of the unit, and name their pirate ship. They also use the following two videos, along with a written account, to develop some basic knowledge. A…

Using this worksheet, students are given this presentation of 10 wacky inventions. They have to match each depicted invention with one of four possibilities. They should then try designing their own suitably nutty invention which can be later used as ‘Horatio Ramsbottom’s’ invention in the newspaper report task that follows the computer simulation (see below).

Mission C: Campaigns and Battles In this final stage of the game-based unit, students take the role of an advisor to either President Davis, or President Lincoln. They will be given a series of military, economic and political problems to deal with. Their first objective is to choose the course of action which they think…

Mission B: Events and Themes In the second stage of the simulation, students are presented with a series of decision points based on key events that took place during the course of the war. For each one, both teams have to decide how their president would have reacted. Correct guesses lead to an increase in…

Mission A: People and Places In this first stage of the simulation, students are divided into “Union” and “Confederate” teams and learn more about the key figures involved in the war. They can then use this to formulate a strategy for winning the simulation – which consists of various armies deciding how best to increase…

In preparation for the roleplay strategy game that follows, each student needs to take on the role of one key politician or soldier from the Civil War and research their life and career and present their findings through a ‘Fakebook’ profile. In this way they will be able to act in role much more effectively…

Video Project – What were the Causes of the American Civil War? This markscheme is designed to help students produce an effective video documentary about the Civil War using the information they have so far gathered.

Students’ Timeline Worksheet – preparation for the videomaking task Students are guided through the main events leading up to the Civil War using this timeline, which should be used in conjunction with specified clips from the first episode of Ken Burns’ excellent documentary about the American Civil War. At appropriate times they should have time…

Teacher’s Introductory Slideshow The teacher uses this worksheet to help introduce students to the main themes, events and personalities. To be used in conjunction with the student worksheet below.

My year 9 Historians have been in role as American Civil War politicians and generals for the past couple of weeks. Here are some of the ‘Fakebook’ projects they produced to round off the epic strategy game through which we studied the topic!

I have just completed teaching the transatlantic slave trade to my Year 9 students. “The Apprentice” roleplay was a particular highlight and I’ve uploaded some new resources to the main page, in particular a new PowerPoint getting students to think about logos, slogans and brand names and a streamlined tasksheet for the Apprentice roleplay exercise.