Given that the shift to enquiry-based learning in National Curriculum has spurred many teachers to begin developing themed, cross-curricular, schemes of work, we at Inspiring Seas wanted to make sure we weren’t left out of the loop! As such, collaborating with our final partner schools in the North East: the Gosforth Triad (Gosforth East Middle School, Gosforth Central Middle School, and Gosforth Junior High School) enabled us to establish the Desert Island Survival Guide Training Programme, or the Science of Survival for short!

As the name suggests, this module focuses in on teaching lessons around the central theme of being stranded on a desert island; having to find water, food that constitutes a balanced and healthy diet, shelter for protection from the elements, the ability to treat stings and bites and the expertise to understand rescue skills.

Gosforth Triad Schools kindly provided work on shelters, starting fires, telling the time and treating stings and bites. However, it was down to the Inspiring Seas project team to provide a fully interactive day down at the coast that imparted practical knowledge and the scientific theory behind finding food and fresh water when stranded on a desert island. A class of year 6 from Gosforth East Middle School and a class of year 7 from Gosforth Central Middle School joined the Inspiring Seas project team for a day shipwrecked down at the coast; the task: to obtain fresh drinking water from seawater and to find food from the rocky shore that would constitute a balanced and healthy diet.

Classes began with a short, lively presentation on the background to the science of survival; covering the benefits of nutrition from the sea and how seawater could be desalinated to provide fresh water for the castaways using solar stills. Pupils then began their survival training by digging pits on the sandy shore to create their solar stills (pictured below). This enabled pupils to practically apply lessons concerning, and enquire about, the scientific theory behind condensation and evaporation and also materials science, thinking about the properties of the materials provided to cover the solar stills in terms of heat reflection/absorption. This activity was designed to have a competition element and the team who obtained the most freshwater won a small prize. This motivated pupils to really consider the theory behind the practical they were undertaking.

As if by magic - Year 6s’ from Gosforth East Middle School show us how its done.	A job well done - Year 7s’ from Gosforth Central Middle School relax after completing their solar still.

After a well earned lunch, it was a quick pit stop back in the lab to pick up our collection buckets and identification guides and then down to the rocky shore; hoping to collect specimens that potentially would make up our marine lunch box.

Getting into the swing of things - A team of year 7’s from Gosforth Central Middle School fully engross themselves in finding food on the rocky shore.	A gourmet meal - A year 7 pupil from Gosforth Central Middle School poses with her catch of the day.

Students engaged with both activities extremely well and really got into the scenario of being stranded on a desert island. Follow up work consisted of creating a desert island menu using inspiration from the specimens collected, writing up the solar still experiment as a log book entry for use by other castaways, writing notes on adaptations marine organisms have to living on the rocky shore to inform other castaways of where potentially edible marine life might be found, and finally a completing a large dietary components wheel with each rocky shore organism found placed in their respective nutritional zone, allowing other castaways to ensure they meet the need for a balanced and healthy diet. Although these activities were not carried out at the coast, but back in pupil's respective schools; Sue Fletcher, a year 6 teacher from Gosforth East Middle School, said “we had some great discussions after the day down at the coast and my class have spent three lessons working on the projects you set!”, all of which are freely downloadable from this website.

Liz Cochrane, a year 7 teacher from Gosforth Central Middle School, said “the activities undertaken matched the students’ needs in terms of their cognitive ability and age”. She added “the format of the day and the worksheets produced really placed emphasis on the students developing the ability to think through problems creatively and finding more answers for themselves”. The entirety of the desert island survival guide module is available for free download from this website.