Exploring Our World: Junior Cycle Geography · 1st Year · Population and Settlement · Summer Term

People Moving Home

Students will understand that people sometimes move from one home to another, either nearby or far away.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary Curriculum - Myself and the Wider World
• NCCA: Primary Curriculum - Human Environments

About This Topic

People Moving Home helps first-year students grasp why families relocate, from local shifts for better schools or housing to international moves for jobs or safety. They explore key questions: reasons for staying nearby, factors prompting town or country changes, and emotions like excitement, sadness, or worry involved. This fits NCCA Junior Cycle Geography in Exploring Our World, specifically Population and Settlement, where human movement shapes communities.

Students link personal or family stories to wider patterns, building skills in empathy, geographical terms such as migration and settlement, and mapping changes over time. Classroom diversity emerges through shared experiences, fostering inclusivity and awareness of Ireland's changing populations, including recent arrivals from other countries.

Active learning benefits this topic greatly. Role-plays of moving scenarios, personal timeline maps, and emotion-sharing circles make abstract ideas concrete. Students process feelings safely, connect geography to life, and value peers' perspectives through hands-on, collaborative tasks.

Key Questions

1. Why might a family move to a new house in the same town?
2. Why might a family move to a new town or country?
3. How do people feel when they move to a new place?

Learning Objectives

• Explain at least three push factors and three pull factors that cause people to migrate.
• Compare and contrast the emotional experiences of individuals moving locally versus internationally.
• Analyze a simple map to identify patterns of internal migration within Ireland.
• Classify different types of human movement based on distance and destination.

Before You Start

My Local Community

Why: Students need a basic understanding of their immediate surroundings and community before exploring broader movements of people.

Types of Homes

Why: Familiarity with different kinds of dwellings provides a foundation for understanding why people might seek new housing.

Key Vocabulary

Migration	The movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling, either temporarily or permanently.
Immigration	The action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country.
Emigration	The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another; the country one leaves.
Push Factors	Reasons that compel people to leave their homes, such as lack of jobs, conflict, or natural disasters.
Pull Factors	Reasons that attract people to a new place, such as job opportunities, better living conditions, or family reunification.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Families only move to bigger or better homes.

What to Teach Instead

Moves often stem from job changes, family needs, or affordability issues, not always upgrades. Role-play activities let students explore real scenarios, revealing complexity and building empathy through peer discussions.

Common Misconception

Everyone feels happy or excited about moving.

What to Teach Instead

Transitions bring mixed emotions, including anxiety or grief over lost connections. Sharing personal stories in circles corrects this by normalizing varied feelings and validating student experiences.

Common Misconception

People rarely move nearby; big moves are the norm.

What to Teach Instead

Local relocations for schools or family are common. Mapping family histories highlights this, helping students see patterns in their own community through collaborative charting.

Active Learning Ideas

Mapping Activity: Family Move Timelines

Students draw simple timelines or maps marking places their family has lived, noting reasons like 'new job' or 'near school' and one feeling per move. Pairs compare maps, then share one example with the class. Display maps on a wall 'migration gallery' for ongoing reference.

35 min·Pairs

Role Play: Moving Scenarios

Prepare cards with scenarios, such as 'family moves for dad's job in Dublin' or 'escape war in home country'. Small groups act out the scene, discuss reasons and feelings, then report back. Debrief as a class on common themes.

45 min·Small Groups

Emotion Sort: Moving Feelings

Provide cards with emotions (happy, scared, sad) and moving situations. In pairs, students match and explain choices, like 'sad when leaving friends'. Groups present matches and vote on most common pairings.

25 min·Pairs

Class Survey: Local Moves

Students survey classmates anonymously on 'Has your family moved? Why? How did you feel?'. Tally results on a chart, discuss patterns. Extend by plotting moves on an Ireland outline map.

40 min·Whole Class

Real-World Connections

• Many towns in Ireland have seen population growth due to people moving from Dublin seeking more affordable housing or a quieter lifestyle. This impacts local services like schools and shops.
• Recent immigrants to Ireland often find work in sectors like technology or hospitality, contributing to the Irish economy and bringing new cultural perspectives to communities across the country.
• Historical migration patterns, such as Irish people emigrating to the United States or Australia during the Famine, shaped global communities and continue to influence cultural ties.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

Give students a card with a scenario (e.g., 'A family moves from Cork to Galway for a new job'). Ask them to identify one push factor and one pull factor related to this move, and one emotion they might feel.

Discussion Prompt

Pose the question: 'Imagine you had to move to a new town tomorrow. What are two things you would miss about your old home and two things you might look forward to in a new place?' Facilitate a brief class discussion.

Quick Check

Display a world map. Ask students to point to a country they know people have moved to from Ireland and a country people have moved from to Ireland. Briefly discuss the reasons for these movements.

Frequently Asked Questions

What activities teach reasons for people moving home?

Use role-play cards with scenarios like job transfers or school proximity, family timelines mapped on Ireland outlines, and class surveys on local moves. These build evidence from personal and peer data, connecting to settlement patterns. Follow with discussions to classify reasons into local versus distant categories, reinforcing NCCA human environments standards.

How can active learning help students understand feelings about moving?

Active methods like emotion-sorting cards, paired sharing of personal stories, and role-plays make feelings tangible. Students match emotions to scenarios, discuss in safe groups, and reflect in journals. This processes anxiety or joy collaboratively, builds empathy, and links personal insights to geographical migration concepts, deepening engagement.

How to handle diverse experiences in a class on moving home?

Start with voluntary sharing and anonymous surveys to respect privacy. Use Ireland maps to plot varied origins, celebrate contributions to communities. Ground rules ensure positive discussions. This approach validates all stories, aligns with inclusivity in Junior Cycle Geography, and models empathy for population dynamics.

What key vocabulary supports People Moving Home?

Teach terms like migration, settlement, relocate, push factors (e.g., high rent), pull factors (e.g., new job), and emotions vocabulary (anxious, nostalgic). Introduce via word walls from activities, reinforce in role-plays. Students use them in reflections, building precise geographical language for NCCA assessments.