B&C resources are normally produced as a result of our own visits, experiences and efforts. I am currently producing an photopack on ‘India’ to complement our other resources on India which include Images in and around Chembakolli and an Indian Resource Pack.
Starting on such a project immediately raises issues of balance, objectivity and choice. How would you choose 30 images to represent a picture of the UK to young learners. Would you go for traditional view of Tower of London, York Minster, Scafell or would you perhaps think about where people live and go for urban landscapes or country views, or perhaps what people do when you might choose swimming in the sea, walking in mountains, running a marathon? Which set of pictures would be truly representative of the UK? The answer is either all of them (because they are all views of the UK) or none of them (each each set represents a particular bias). With a country the size (1.21 billion people) and variety of India(deserts, mountains, jungles, valleys, plateaux) the problem of being truly representative is multiplied and truly mind-blowingly mind blowing.
We are often asked is why teachers use artefacts in the class-room. Simon Catling believes that artefacts cab provide insightful, stimulating and engaging learning about other places. He suggests developing a place tray and encouraging the pupils to become geographical detectives to find out where the ‘place’ is. He points out that ‘ephemeral artefacts which he identifies as things like old bus or train tickets, old newspapers, sweet wrappers and the like can convey vital clues about what a place is like. For more on this from Simon see
his article, “The Place of Artefacts in geography” in Primary Geographer no.78 summer 2012.
Our artefact boxes from Africa (The Gambia) China, Brazilian Rainforest, India and St Lucia already have organised a variety of artefacts for you, but as a starter they could readily be put on a ‘Place Tray’ and the children asked to be detectives and try to identify where the place is.