Exploring Our World: Junior Cycle Geography · 1st Year

Active learning ideas

Reasons for Moving

Active learning helps students connect abstract concepts to personal experiences, which is essential for understanding human movement. By role-playing, sorting, mapping, and planning, students explore real-world reasons for moving while developing empathy and critical thinking skills.

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

• 25–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Role Play
• 45 min · Small Groups

Role Play: Push and Pull Scenarios

Prepare cards with scenarios like 'job in Cork' or 'fleeing floods.' Small groups draw one, act it out briefly, identify push or pull factors, and share with the class. Follow with a whole-class chart of examples.

What are some good reasons to move to a new place?

Facilitation Tip

Use the Family Migration Map to ask students to identify one personal connection to a relocating family’s experience, such as a grandparent moving for work or a cousin arriving from abroad.

What to look for

On a small card, ask students to write down one 'pull factor' and one 'push factor' for moving, providing a brief example for each. Then, ask them to suggest one action a classmate could take to make a new student feel welcome.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 02

• Concept Mapping
• 25 min · Pairs

Reasons Sort: Card Activity

Provide cards listing reasons to move, such as 'family illness' or 'better school.' Pairs sort into voluntary, forced, and mixed categories, then justify choices in a class vote.

What are some difficult reasons why people might have to move?

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine your family had to move for a new job. What would be the best part of moving, and what would be the hardest part?' Facilitate a brief class discussion, encouraging students to share their thoughts and listen to others.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Concept Mapping
• 40 min · Small Groups

Welcome Committee: Planning Session

Groups brainstorm ways to help newcomers, like buddy systems or cultural events. They create posters or skits, present, and vote on top ideas for school implementation.

How can we help new people feel welcome in our community?

What to look for

Present students with short scenarios (e.g., 'A family moves because their home was damaged by a flood,' 'A young person moves to the city for university'). Ask students to identify whether the primary reason is a 'pull factor' or 'push factor' and briefly explain why.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

Activity 04

• Concept Mapping
• 35 min · Individual

Family Migration Map

Individuals draw maps showing family moves, noting reasons. Share in pairs, then add to a class Ireland map highlighting common patterns.

What are some good reasons to move to a new place?

What to look for

On a small card, ask students to write down one 'pull factor' and one 'push factor' for moving, providing a brief example for each. Then, ask them to suggest one action a classmate could take to make a new student feel welcome.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Create
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should balance factual content with emotional engagement, using scenarios that resonate with students' lives. Avoid oversimplifying reasons for moving; instead, guide students to recognize the complexity of decisions and their impact on identity and community. Research shows that empathy-building activities like role-play improve students' understanding of diverse experiences.

Students will distinguish between voluntary and forced reasons for moving, identify local and global patterns, and propose welcoming actions for newcomers. They should articulate how communities support integration through collaborative planning.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Role Play: Push and Pull Scenarios, some students may assume all moves are voluntary. Use the scenario cards to guide students in identifying emotional and practical challenges tied to forced relocations.

  During Reasons Sort: Card Activity, students often overlook local moves. Arrange the cards to include both international and Irish examples, such as moving to a bigger town for secondary school or relocating after a flood.

• During Welcome Committee: Planning Session, students may believe newcomers need no support. Use the group presentations to highlight how isolation affects new arrivals, focusing on practical steps like language classes or community events.

  During Family Migration Map, students might assume only distant moves matter. Ask them to mark their own family’s moves on the map to connect personal experiences to national patterns.

• During Family Migration Map, students may think only international relocations are significant. Use the activity to show how short-distance moves, like rural-to-urban shifts, shape communities just as strongly.

  During Role Play: Push and Pull Scenarios, some students may focus only on economic reasons. Include scenarios about safety, family reunification, or climate change to broaden their understanding of push factors.

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Methods used in this brief

• Role Play
• Concept Mapping