How the power of timelines can transform your spaces!
Many of us can probably remember learning dates and events, parrot fashion, in order to pass exams during our time at school. Years later, we might still be able to recall the date of the signing of the Magna Carta or when the Battle of Hastings was fought. But do we remember much more than that? Do we remember which came first and what was the period of time between them? (Give yourself 5 points if you said The Battle of Hastings and 149 years).
In short, do we have an actual frame of reference for our knowledge?
Making an impact on your school environment
It’s one thing to know a date and quite another to understand its place and context within history. Whilst we might think of timelines as being powerful tools purely for teaching History, they are also great at showing how subjects relate to one another; how points in time that span, Geography, IT, Maths, English, Science and PE, interweave and connect.
When we visit a school and assess available space, a timeline often features in our proposal, but not always shown in the most obvious way. If you have a long stretch of straight blank corridor to work with, – great – a timeline will work wonderfully! But if you don’t have this, then don’t worry. Powerful timelines can be created to work brilliantly in functional, high traffic areas such as stairwells. This configuration can work especially well as information can be viewed directly in front of you as well as along side you, as the staircase turns between floors. Using hard wearing materials such as Foamex and Dibond Aluminium allows your school displays to feature in these areas.
The effect timelines have on your students!
The process of repeatedly seeing information and absorbing it on a subconscious level, provides another way of learning, one that students are not always aware of until the time comes to summon information. The imaginative use of colours, pictures, facts and figures, can engage learners in a different way, providing another useful tool to aid the process of teaching and boost cultural capital in your school.
Take a look at the images below to see how Summerhill School transformed their history department with the power of timelines!
So, if you would like your students to travel through time on their daily commute between lessons, give us a call and let’s find a solution perfect for your setting.