Ian Gibson and Susan McLelland describe their work using cause boxes. They identity the type of historical learning that they felt was taking place and the range of factors which they judged to be critical in making it happen. Work with the cause boxes was carefully positioned within a sequence of learning with close attention to the role of pupils' prior knowledge. Pupil pairings and groupings were chosen in order to increase the opportunity for focussed and purposeful talk. Whilst this type of ‘cardsorting' is now extremely common, what is distinctive and interesting here, is the use of very brief wording on the cards. Many teachers use phrases or sentences in order to help pupils to construct causal webs, see relationships or build an argument. Gibson and McLelland simply use names or substantive concepts, thus making the ‘cause' less obvious. This simplifies the task in some respects whilst creating new kinds of challenge in others. Absolutely clear about where they wanted that challenge to be, the learning reaches a crescendo with pupils highly engaged and competing with each other, determined to find the most defensible historical links. Gibson and McLelland conclude by anticipating much transfer of learning into other historical problems and settings, as pupils progress into post-14 work.