Hillary Challenge

Social Studies Online

These activities will stretch student thinking about the skills, qualities and values that Sir Edmund Hillary demonstrates. Use them in any way you choose, eg. set up a learning centre where students have a choice of activities, set up stations using some of the activities where students move around the stations in an extended session or on different days, or choose one or two to do with the whole class maybe in groups. Have a range of graphic organisers available for students to choose form when recording their ideas.

• The Reverse
  Name ten skills and values you would not associate with Sir Edmund Hillary.

• The Ridiculous
  Try to justify this statement:
  "Everyone should have to live in a developing country for one year before they are 25."

• The Prediction
  Suggest some ways that you could use what you have learnt about Sir Edmund Hillary in your own life.

• The Picture
  What could this picture have to do with Sir Edmund Hillary's skills, qualities and values?

  

• The Inventions
  Design a criteria list for a humanitarian.

• The Forced Relationship
  How is teamwork like a bicycle?

• The Interpretation
  Give some reasons why Sir Edmund Hillary is considered our greatest living hero.

• The Commonality
  What are the commonalities between Sir Edmund Hillary's skills, qualities and values, and your skills qualities and values?
  or
  What are the commonalities between an adventurer and a humanitarian?

• The Question
  The answer is hard work. What are five possible questions?

• The Brick Wall
  Not everybody can make a difference the way Sir Edmund Hillary has. Consider alternatives to this statement. How could one child today make a difference?

• The What If?
  What if Sir Edmund Hillary had not been a humble person?

• The Disadvantage
  What are some disadvantages of not being thoroughly prepared for challenging events / activities? Suggest some possible solutions to the problem.

• The Alternatives
  List some ways that you could become a good leader without someone directly teaching you about leadership.

Thinker's Keys are instructional approaches used to develop a broad range of thinking skills and processes. First developed by Tony Ryan (Thinker's Keys for Kids, 1990), they have been adapted by Michael Pohl (Learning to Think 2000). A range of question starters are presented as keys to unlocking the analytical, critical and creative thinking abilities of students.

Pohl, M. (2000). Learning to Think: Thinking to Learn. Hawker Bronlow Education: Australia