Historical enquiries: age 11 – 14
Why did so many people move during the Age of Revolution? Why did workers protest? And had there really been a transport revolution by the mid 1800s?
Our revolutionary collection brings together a rich array of historical sources from museums and galleries across the UK to help students find out about the extraordinary people, events and ideas of the Age of Revolution.
Each of our enquiries focuses on a key question, and guides students through using historical sources to formulate their own answers, with opportunities to:
- Frame and answer historically valid questions
- Explore different types of sources and evidence and assess their reliability
- Explore historical concepts such as similarity and difference, continuity and change, and historical significance
- Explore historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance
- Make historical connections and draw contrasts
- Develop historical vocabulary
Use our historical enquiries with your students, adapt them, or create your own. Try our Guides, Activities and Creative and digital making projects for more ways to use the collection in the classroom.
All of our learning resources are authored by education specialists and historians.
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A transport revolution?
Explore the inventions and discoveries that changed the way people travelled in the early 1800s and assess their impact on people’s lives.
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Migration: why did people move?
From the millions of African men, women and children stolen from their homelands and transported to the Americas, to those moving from rural Britain to the newly industrialised towns and cities, explore the pushes and pulls on the people of the Age of Revolution.
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Why did workers protest?
Interrogate banners, posters, songs and more to find out how and why workers of the past protested, and whether their demands were met.
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Abolition of the transatlantic slave trade
From the men, women and children who resisted their enslavement, to the campaigners who fought for its abolition, use a range of sources to find out who fought for the abolition of slavery and some of the tactics they used.
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Carrying out historical enquiries
What are the five steps to carrying out a successful enquiry? Tips and ideas for students of all ages, from asking useful and relevant historical questions - that students will really want to know the answers to, to using historical sources to evidence their own conclusions.
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The Peterloo Graphic Novel – available free to schools now
A vivid, original and historically accurate 'comic book' account of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, published as part of the 200th anniversary commemorations, is now available to schools.