Globalsport/Teacher Notes/Spaces Places

= Rugby World Cup: Spaces and Places =

This strand is integral to the rest of the project in that students will work in groups, add to their individual glossaries and maintain their portfolios. The intention of this strand is that we want the students to be able to think about the significance that a playing venue has in the community and the environment that it is located in. The learning is divided into three sections. In the first part, students will be asked to identify all the venues that are being used in the Rugby World Cup. Secondly, they will be set off on a journey as a group with their own tickets to a particular game at a nominated venue. They will be asked to investigate their destination as if they were actually attending the game. Thirdly they will be asked to present their findings to the class.

= Time allocation =

Time allocated to this strand is 7-8 hours of student time.


 * Introductory activity and locating the stadiums should take 3 hours (including the finished poster)


 * The journey to the nominated stadium and accumulating the findings should take 5 hours


 * Presentation of their findings should take 20 minutes for each group. The time this takes for your class will vary on the number of students that you have.

= Introductory activity - what's in a name? =

This is a starter activity for the students to think about the different names that a large venue can be called and to get an appreciation of the size and design features they use to make them operational. For your interest the largest stadium is in North Korea and holds 120,000 people. You could discuss why a communist country needs such a large venue?

When we start to look at places where people gather to watch sport, we need to have a look at the different names that these places are called. Generally an arena is the term used to describe a place where people meet to watch a cultural activity - for example, a rock concert. The term stadium is generally used to describe a place where sport is played. A venue is a term used to describe any place where people gather for any reason for example, a wedding, social, conference or game. Usually arenas and stadiums are very large and the biggest one in the world holds 120,000 people. Could you find out where this stadium is? Let's look at some pictures of stadiums to become familiar with their design features that make it possible to hold large amounts of people at any one time.

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Identify 3 design features of a stadium
Examine this photo and think about the following questions

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 * What is the name of the shape of the stadium?
 * Why do you think it is shaped like this?
 * Where do the players play? Why is this?
 * Can you identify where people can enter or exit the stadium?
 * Why is it important to know where your exits are?

Design features include:


 * The shape is often oval or round so that everyone can see the players, but in stadiums built for sports like football or rugby the stands usually form a rectangle perimeter around the pitch
 * The players are always play at the base of the stadium to allow people to see them easily
 * The stadiums have slightly inward rounded tops - to prevent noise escaping (and to provide shelter)
 * The exits are distributed evenly to allow for maximum people flow in and out of the stadium - this is to minimise accidents and increase the safety of the venue

= Location, Location, Location =

The purpose of this activity is to let the students see the scope and range of venues throughout the country that will be used in this event. The activities are set up to allow for students to use electronic research methods or physical classroom resources. This resource is below - "Resource Pack One" - and contains all the stadium photos and names for the students to use as a source of information.

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A Stadium treasure hunt
Throughout the country there are 13 stadiums and 12 locations where the Rugby World Cup games are being played. Your group have been given the role of 'stadium hunters' and you have one hour to identify and find a picture of each of the stadium names and their locations.

Helpful hints: Computer generated research: Classroom based research:
 * Use your researching skills on the internet
 * Organise your group so that someone records the information as you find it.
 * Start a new folder to put your pictures into.
 * Read the information that your teacher gives you
 * Allocate jobs in your group to manage the photos, recording information and checking the results.

Presenting your information
Present your findings using one of the options below. Which ever one you choose, your presentation must include at least one named image of each stadium and a map showing the location. }}
 * A wall poster, brochure or equivalent or
 * An electronic format of your choice such as a Powerpoint, Keynote, podcast or slideshow

Using reflection and discussion as a tool is a useful way to bring student knowledge into a public forum and consequently be shared by others.
 * 1) Students should see from their displays that the venues are evenly distributed throughout the country and after discussion they should be led to realise that this is done for economic and social reasons: 1. It allows games to be played in the provinces and therefore be available for local populations to enjoy and feel apart of. 2. The economic benefits of having travelling teams and supporters move around the country means that the financial benefits of accomodating these teams will be shared throughout smaller communities and not just confined to larger cities.
 * 2) The fact that some of the stadiums are bigger than others means that only the bigger ones will be able to hold games that go into the semi-finals and beyond. The capacity of the crowds will grow as the games move through the draws to the finals. The number of games being played at each stadium is related to their capacity and location.
 * 3) Students may come up with their own ideas for this one and it is a good idea to get them to examine and compare their photos of each stadium, however, the most popular ones will be the shape, size, location (in more rural or industrial areas) etc.

Suggested words for the glossary: economy, province, population, capacity. However, it is good to encourage students to identify words they don't understand and encourage them to find meaning and put them into a context. Recording them in a Glossary is a way for them to build up a record of their learning. A suggested framework is also provided for students to reflect upon their learning. Other reflections you could encourage may include letting them relate their own location to the nearest venue, their personal interest in attending this event, the venue they thought was the most interesting or most important.

= Our journey to the World Cup = This activity is designed to contextualise the World Cup for the students. It is set up to motivate the students by giving them tickets to one of the venues and asking them to plan a real/virtual trip that includes accomodation, an activity and a fact finding mission about the venue they will watch the game in. In their investigations, they should develop an awareness of the location that the venue is in and how environmentally aware of the surrounding area it is - which is the one aspect of this activity that I would enlarge upon in subsequent discussions as being one of the more important aspects of stadium design and location. Students are encouraged to choose the cheapest options when they are planning their trip, this will make it easier for them to make decisions. There is a prize on offer for the group that plans the cheapest trip - teacher discretion should prevail for this.

Your country is hosting an International Sporting event and your group has been given tickets and enough money to cover the costs of attending a game at one of the playing venues. Your group will be asked to design a trip to this venue that will involve some accomodation and travel options, one related activity to do in the location and some research into your nominated venues history and environment. There is a prize for the group that can find all the cheapest options.

The following activity is designed to recap their knowledge of the venues they explored in "Location Location Location" and to inspire them to gain as many points as possible so that they can choose their venue for their trip. Depending on the age group, I would run this activity with 5 minutes of recap and reading, then with no information in front of them, let them work as a group to determine the answers. The 'no of games' column was put into the mix and match to make it a bit more difficult. Hint: the stadiums in the largest cities will host the most games. Once the results are in, then students will choose their venue depending on their results (most points = first choice and so forth).

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Competition for the venue
Your group now has the opportunity to compete for tickets for the Rugby World Cup in 2011. There is a mix and match quiz below. You will have 15 minutes to match the venue with the location and then try and match the 'no. of games that will be played' at each stadium as well. Complete this quiz on a separate piece of paper and hand it to the teacher with your group name at the top. The group with the highest number of right answers will be the first to choose which venue they will be going.



Answers Below:



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The following activity is designed to allow the students the flexibility to design their own journed to a venue. The easiest way to source the information is via the internet, but if this is not an option, then travel books such as the 'Lonely Planet' series or AA Travel books also contain most of the information. On top of this, I would recommend that the Teacher collate information from the City Councils about the stadiums location and environmental consideration.

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Planning the journey
Now that you have completed the quiz and have been allocated a Venue as your destination, you will now need to complete the following steps: }}
 * Decide how you will get to your venue - look at land travel and air travel options
 * Decide where you could stay for one night - look at a camping ground or back packers and a Motel or Hotel
 * Decide what activity you could do at your location - look at visiting a museum, mountain biking, horse riding, bungy jumping etc
 * Find out about the history of your venue
 * Find out about how your venue was designed to protect the surrounding environment from noise and excess traffic

Students will need help to organise this part of their activity. Helping them organise their group into specific roles will make the activity progress faster.

The sort of information that students may focus on is the availability of resources for them to complete this activity, as well as the difficulty in making choices concerning accommodation, activities and travel. The addition of a monetary cap on their planning should make it easier for them to make these decisions as a group.

= Presenting the information = This activity is designed to allow the students to develop skills in organising information into a presentable format and the presentation itself. Ideally students will be able to explore a range of technologies to present their material and Google Earth is the recommended method for this activity. However, there are many more technologies available to choose from. Students using class based physical resources will use more traditional methods and/or could use standalone software as another option.

Once you have collected your data about your Venue, you will need to organise it into an easy to present format for the class to understand. Your presentation should take about 20 minutes for your group

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Choosing a presentation method
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 * Students using an electronic presentation method can take this opportunity to learn about Google Earth
 * Students using a physical display method can take some time planning how best to present their information using physical resources OR standalone software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Movie Maker

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Google Earth - useful information
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 * Choosing to use Google Earth to present your information will allow you the opportunity to create an entire trip from your beginning location to your Venue Destination. It is possible to build layers for your accomodation and activities and also to narrate the journey online. We recommend you familiarise yourselves with Google Earth using the Help and Tutorial facility.

= Evaluating our Journey = Discussion and reflection is an important part of this strand to allow students the opportunity to hear others thoughts and be able to voice their own. It will reinforce some of the knowledge that they have learnt and give them the opportunity to ask questions. Even thought some questions have been posed below, encouraging students to voice their own is a much more effective way of engaging them in this reflective process.

An example of this final reflection would be that the students write a short story about their journey.