Topic: The spheres of the Earth

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

1st grade high school and technical high school student (basic range)

Core curriculum

V Lithosphere: relationship between the Earth's interior structure and the lithosphere plate tectonics, internal and external processes shaping the Earth's surface and their effects, rocks.

The students:

1 ) explains the connection between the Earth's interior structure and lithospheric plate motion and its influence on the genesis of endogenous processes.

The general aim of education

You will learn the spheres of the Earth.

Criteria of success

• You will name the spheres of the Earth and determine their composition;

• show dependencies between all spheres;

• describe what Moho discontinuity is;

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in a foreign language;

• learning to learn;

• digital competence.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

• activity with educational material and multimedia on the epodreczniki.pl platform;

• individual activity, activity in pairs, and collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• multimedia projector;

• tablets/computers;

• geographical atlases.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher presents lesson goals and the criteria of success and starts the classes by instructing the students on how to solve the crosswords on the interactive whiteboard. The crossword's password is the topic of the lesson (Earth's layers).

2. The students search in the source materials such as: internet, geography teaching handbook, e‑textbook, information about concepts related to the Earth’s spheres: lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, pedosphere. Discussion about the correctness and choice of the terms.

Realization

1. Joint reading of the material contained in the abstract and analysis of illustrations (scheme of the Earth’s spheres). Analysis and discussion concerning the scheme on the class forum. Paying attention to the convection currents of the Earth's interior visible in the illustration.

2. The teacher emphasizes that there are various interdependencies between the mentioned spheres, the impact of one sphere on another, e.g. the shape of the surface of the lithosphere affects the nature of the climate, the distribution of waters and vegetation. Changes in one natural factor entail other changes, e.g. cutting out of forests causes a faster circulation of water and the air in nature and more intensive soil erosion, etc.

3. The teacher discusses the phenomenon of Moho discontinuity with the students. The students look for information on this phenomenon, then they write down a note in their notebooks or in a form in the abstract. The teacher and the students analyse the picture showing the outcrop of the rocks of the Earth's mantle.

4. The students do an interactive exercise: Fill in the empty spaces in the sentences: Earth's layers. They can be done on the interactive whiteboard by eager students.

5. An interactive exercise consisting in matching the text in pairs: Match the information to the appropriate sphere of the Earth. The teacher selects the students to perform the task one by one.

Summary

1. The teacher summarizes the classes and assesses the students' work.

2. Homework for keen students. Give three examples the interdependencies between the atmosphere and the hydrosphere, the biosphere and the pedosphere.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Earth’s layers (spheres)

We distinguish five spheres of the Earth that interact with each other and interpenetrate themselves.

• Lithosphere (from the Greek word lithos meaning “stone”) – a rock layer separating the hot interior of the Earth from its surface.

• Hydrosphere (from the Greek word hydro meaning „water”) – includes waters in the seas, oceans, lakes and rivers, in glaciers and ice‑sheets, as well as water in the air, soil and rocks.

• Atmosphere (from the Greek word atmos , i.e. “water vapour, vapour”) – a gaseous coating surrounding the lithosphere and the hydrosphere.

• Biosphere (from the Greek word bios – “life”) – a sphere that includes living creatures on our planet.

• Pedosphere (from the Greek word pedon meaning “soil”) – distinguished by many geographers, a soil layer closely related to the biosphere, consisting of crumbs of rocks, water, atmospheric gases, as well as organisms and their remains.