Port Royal Students example essay topic

Pam Morris' article, Supplementary Reading for Unit X: field work / Project work postulated the view that, "Surrounding the school is a powerful learning environment - the community. And, there is always some intended learning that will be facilitated by taking advantage of the environment". Armstrong (1980) noted that, "the community is really a laboratory for the Social Studies. As such, students can obtain practice in gathering information, analyzing their data, generating tentative conclusions, judging the worth of such results, and incorporating final judgments into the knowledge they have. As educational space, the community provides opportunities for students to apply their information processing skills from various disciplines". With these facts in mind one is cognizant that a field enquiry of any nature in most instances can prove to be very challenging and as such much detailed information need to be covered.

This however, can prove to be very beneficial to students as well as teachers as they are both able to explore vast areas of enquiry that formally only presents itself as information found in textbooks. Students are therefore better able to transfer the knowledge obtained in the classroom setting to the new environment and examine phenomena, as they actually exist. It was with great zeal that I set out on my expedition do a field enquiry on Port Royal. The following is a list of the areas that were used to guide my enquiry.

Housing Education Employment / unemployment Social And Cultural life Transportation Tourism I have organized my information in three (3) main parts A. Reflection on the field trip B. Brief over view of Port Royal C. In depth analysis of the relevance of Port Royal to the teaching and learning of Social Studies. Reflection on the Field Trip On Saturday, March 8, 2002 we departed the University of the West Indies to go on field trip to Port Royal. We approach Port Royal by land, driving along that Palisadoes road which was opened in 1936 (according to data at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust). The drive out onto the Palisadoes (the long, flat spit of land leading out to Port Royal from Kingston) was very scenic. Becoming very narrow at spots, it was easy to see the Harbour waters on the right, and the ocean waves not far away on the left. Tall skeletal cactus plants were growing amongst the sand dunes and mingling with the mangrove bushes, I later learned from Mr. Alfred Veitch a local g riot that the area supports a rather rare, precarious ecosystem.

The first sign of Port Royal was the Naval Cemetery, Which lies on the right on side of the road about half a mile out of the town. Continuing on the Port Royal road, we next came to Fort Rupert, on the left. On dry ground may be seen what look very mush like the remains of an octagonal tower, while about twenty yards out in the lagoon is a large fragment of the brick battery wall, part of Fort Rupert. About 100 yards past Fort Royal, with the nineteenth-century wall running close by the road on the right, is a marked rise in the road. Here we were in fact driving up what remains of the southern rampart of Polygon Battery.

We then came to the Morgan's Harbour Hotel, which was at the end of the line. We did not visit there but during my informal interview with Mr. Veitch I learnt that this building was the Pitch House, an 18th century store house. This hotel over looks the sunken city of Port Royal and scuba diving is one of its main attractions as the sunken city, along with the various shipwrecks is of great interest to scuba divers. Driving down the main road, actually a narrow lane. Then came a grassy park (the old Muster Grounds) with one of those historical marker signs, telling briefly about the History of Port Royal. Our first stop was Fort Charles, one of the six forts that guarded the town.

Data revealed by Jamaica National Heritage Trust claimed that it is the oldest surviving structure in Port Royal. Walking up the ramp. And paying our fees, we entered the fort thrilling to the thoughts of walking in the footsteps of Henry Morgan, and Admiral Lord Nelson. We first went into a small museum with many of the artifacts recovered from the sunken section of Port Royal. Exiting the museum, we followed the fort tour guide into the shade of an overhanging platform. She explained that the wooden decking above was called the Nelson's Quarterdeck, for that is where the young Horatio Nelson was said to observe the horizon for enemy ships.

(This struck me as very strange because event to my untrained eyes the wood was fairly new). We climbed steps up to the platform, with its numerous guns pointing out to sea, where we could se that it made a splendid observation point. Leaving the fort through the southern gate, our guide took us to the remains of the Victoria and Albert Battery - several large gun pits sunk into the sand, connected we were told, by underground tunnels- installed in the late 1880's The guns are now gone, having been quite disrupted by the 1907 earthquake. That same earthquake also tilted the late 19th century powder magazine / artillery storehouse, now canted at a 35-degree angle. Inside the "Giddy House" we had much fun taking photos of each other looking as if we were leaning at quite a drunken angle. Back inside the fort, we stopped for drinks in the cool interior of the brick Grogge shop It was easy to visualize this building back in the early 18th century minus it's modern paraphernalia, and imagine what a grogge shop of the period look like.

But it had not always been a grogge shop. Our tour guide had told us that this building was once a prison, then a powder house. After leaving the grogge shop some of us sat in the shade of the large tree and some highly acclaimed decorators transforming the fort for a visiting dignitary's wedding. While some persons just strolled around. We then exited Fort Charles we examined briefly the Police Training School and then drove done Church Street passing some small homes and a small rosy coloured Methodist church, we then spotted a moderate sized gray coloured church beyond on the other side of the street. This was Saint Peter's an Anglican church built in 1725, to replace Christ Church, which was lost in the 1692 earthquake.

On display inside the church was the Communion Silver of the Church. It is said that Sir Henry Morgan willed this to the church from his Spanish plunder. In the churchyard was a tomb of one of the founders of Saint Peter's -Lewis Gaudy- a local hero who had survived the earthquake. The tomb revealed a concise history of his life. Adjacent to the church is some "high rise" board and brick structures used as apartment buildings. Children from this "apartment complex" were seen playing a game of netball on a hard court in front of the church.

Our final stop was at the world's renowned Gloria's Rendezvous were we had sumptuous fish done to suit our varied taste buds. It was at Gloria's while my colleagues were experimenting with the various in which fish can be enjoyed that I wondered off on my own and met the local village lawyer Mr. Alfred Veitch and conducted an informal interview with him (see appendix for further detail) It was with a heavy heart and laden feet that I boarded the car and departed from this spectacular little town where it takes little imagination to envision it at various periods of its history It is a day that is deeply embedded in the fore front of my mind and will remain there for a long time to come. Brief Over view of Port Royal High up in the mountains behind Kingston at the sources of those rivers whose torrential, gravel-laden waters spill out into the Caribbean sea to the east of the Liguanea plain is the beginning of Port Royal or "Royal Port" the name by which it was called by the monarch of England. It then ends at the tip of a twelve-mile peninsula off the southwestern shore of the celebrated Caribbean island of Jamaica.

Research as shown that this unique town, home to approximately 2000 proud indigenous Port Royalists was the major trading port of sir Henry Morgan and the ruthless buccaneers in the 17th century, who plundered unsuspecting ships and raid the newly established settlements of the Americas. Storing their ill-gotten treasures at Port Royal, the buccaneers celebrated their victories with raucous feasting and drinking. As the turn of the 17th century approached, Port Royal was to earn a reputation as the "richest and wickedest city in the world", with more cash per capita than London itself. In 1692 Port Royal was struck by a devastating earthquake that plunged more than two thirds of the city below the sea, creating the only authentic sunken city- "the Pompeii of the Caribbean"- in the western hemisphere. The town was rebuilt by the English and enjoyed its second era of glory as the Empire's major naval base in the Americas. Today, distinguished archaeologists revere this site, with it numerous artifacts unearthed from the Sunken City and superb architecture from the 17th to the 19th centuries such as the British forts and the "Giddy House"- the latter built in the 1888 and tilted at a 35 degree angle by an earthquake in 1907.

Port Royal is also a favourite " hip strip " for locals and visitors to " be seen" drinking the official beer (Red Stripe) of Jamaica and enjoying fish and seafood delicacies, prepared with that unique "Port Royal flavour" by the town's remarkable residents who are swollen with pride of their amazing history. Port Royal incredible past has left it with an abundance of places of interest. Chief among these are the Old Naval Hospital, Fort Charles, Saint Peters' Methodist Church, The Dock Yard, and Morgan's Harbour Hotel. Port Royal its Relevance to the Teaching and Learning of Social Studies In Social Studies, after visiting Port Royal Students will want to learn more about all the places of interest and famous people that are associated with this culturally diverse town. This will motivate them to do further research about its history. For example, they could research topics such as Port Royal's early days, Port Royal' final days.

Port Royal today and how a visit to a future Port Royal could be a more exciting and culturally stimulating experience. Students will learn from the visit about how things were in the 17th, 18th and 19th century as artifacts, archaeological records and architecture tells a vivid story. According to Dante "Social Studies provides students with the freedom to search for the truth". Port Royal therefore is ideal to achieve this objective, as it will provide training and practice in knowledge and skills that will give them social competence. Students will develop the following essential life skills: role playing and dramatization, interviewing, classifying, comparing and contrasting, analyzing, listening, synthesizing, critical thinking, application and unity. These skills will allow them to develop into alert well-informed citizens, as their social consciousness will be awakened.

At Fort Charles, the artifacts in the museum or on display on the outside wall of the fort, the photographs in the museum, Nelson's Quarterdeck, the "Giddy House" the Grogge shop and Port Royal in its entirety are ideal resources for Discovery Teaching. These instructional materials can be used to: vs. Established background and provide information. vs. Help students understand time and places far removed from their own life spaces. vs. Generate questions. vs. Strengthen observation skills. vs. Help students realize the vast potential that exists when one tap his own physical and mental capabilities. Port Royal is a great resource for teaching various objectives in the Social Studies curriculum. As it reflects all the things Morris outlined in her reading 10.1 Community as Educational Space.

She claimed that", The community adds realism- it provides students with living examples of many of the Social Studies concept. It allows them to "put pieces together" in ways not possible through merely reading textbooks.