Topic: Land‑forming factors and processes. Summary.

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

1st grade student of high school and technical high school (basic scope).

Core curriculum

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

1. explains the connection between the building of the Earth's interior and the movement of the lithosphere plates and its influence on the genesis of endogenous processes;

2. explains the course of the main internal processes leading to the diversification of the Earth's surface (epicogenic movements, tectonic movements, volcanism, plutonism, earthquakes);

3. characterizes the main external processes modeling the surface of the Earth (erosion, transport, accumulation) and effects of the sculptural activity of rivers, wind, glaciers, glacier and seas and weathering;

4. recognizes selected rock types and presents their economic application.

General aim of education

You will discuss factors and processes that affect the relief.

Criteria of success

You will: - repeat and consolidate your knowledge and skills in the section of: Land‑forming factors and processes.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in a foreign language;

• learning to learn;

• digital competence.

Methods / forms of work

1. using ICT tools;

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

3. activity with the Quizizz.com application;

4. activity with the Google Earth programme;

5. Activity with the poster method;

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

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• multimedia projector;

• tablets/computers;

• physical map of world;

• wall map of Poland;

• wall map of world - geology - tectonics;

• geographical atlases.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher begins the classes by presenting their goal and discussing the course. The teacher divides the students into three groups.

Realization

1. The teacher prepares for each group the main topic and tasks to be undertaken (the tasks are written down on sheets cut into strips). It is good to prepare as many strips as there are participants in each team. The groups create a poster that will be presented and discussed on the class forum. When searching for information, the students can use the summary contained in the abstract and refer to additional sources.

I group - Land‑forming activity of rivers and seas

1. Task: Describe the destructive and building activity of rivers.

2. Task: Name the types of river estuaries. Explain what causes the creation of each estuary and show examples of rivers with different estuaries on the map of world.

3. Task: explain the terms abrasion and cliff. Give examples of their occurrence in Poland.

4. Task: Name the types of coasts and specify how they are formed.

5. Task: using Google Earth, give examples of three selected coast types and determine their geographical locations.

II group - Land‑forming activity of the wind

1. Task: name wind activities.

2. Task: characterize three types of deserts and give their examples on the map of world.

3. Task: explain the terms deflation and corrasion. Give examples.

4. Task: draw a parabolic dune and a barchan and explain how they are formed.

5. Task: answer if there are sand dunes in Poland.

III group - Volcanism and earthquakes

1. Task: explain what a Pacific ring of fire is.

2. Task: point to examples of volcanoes on the maps of world and Europe.

3. Task: list the division of volcanoes and characterize how they are formed.

4. Task: draw a volcano and present its structure.

5. Task: name places on the Earth where the strongest earthquakes occur.

Group IV – Weathering of rocks

1. Task: explain what karst is and how it is created.

2. Task: replace surface karst forms.

3. Task: draw a cave and mark the forms in it.

4. Task: characterize mass movements.

5. Task: list the types of mass movements and indicate their occurrence on the map.

V group – Volcanism and earthquakes

1. Task: explain what is the Pacific ring of fire.

2. Task: indicate on the map examples of volcanoes in the world and in Europe.

3. Task: give the division of volcanoes and characterize how they were formed.

4. Task: draw a volcano and present its structure.

5. Task: give places on Earth where the strongest quakes occur.

2. The teacher asks the students to do interactive exercises in the abstract, consisting in arranging elements (setting the mountains in a correct order from the oldest to the youngest and setting the Paleozoic era periods in the appropriate order), and making a crossword puzzle related to the topic of the lesson. The students selected by the teacher perform this task at the whiteboard.

Summary

• Using the application, the teacher runs the test entitled consisting of 26 questions.The teacher asks the students to use mobile phones for the indicated didactic game.Each eager participant goes to join.quizizz.com, enters the code visible on the interactive whiteboard and writes his/her name.

• The teacher assesses the students ' work during the lesson, appreciating their engagement, participation and commitment.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Land‑forming factors and processes. Summary

The Earth is comprised of concentric layers – the crust, the mantle and the core. Each and every layer has different physical and chemical properties. Their heterogeneity is the source of many natural phenomena, e.g. volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Rocks are records of our planet’s long history. By examining rocks, we learn where deserts, volcanoes and seas were located in the past. Earth’s surface is constantly transforming. These changes result mainly from natural processes, which had shaped the Earth before mankind and which will continue to mould our planet even after humans cease to exist.

On the Earth, many areas are covered with mountain glaciers and ice sheets, which are formed in appropriate climatic conditions and in places where the shape of the surface is favourable. Ice sheets cover almost the whole of Antarctica and a major part of Greenland. Glaciers form above the perpetual snow line in the mountains of all continents except Australia. As a result of the destructive and building activity of glaciers, many post‑glacial forms are created, e.g. cirque, moraines, sanders or glacial lakes.

Moving water can mechanically destroy rocks. This phenomenon is called erosion. The upper course of a river is dominated by deep erosion and headward erosion, in the middle course – lateral erosion, and meanders can form there. In the lower course, especially at the mouth of the sea or a lake, the river no longer has its erosive force, it gradually loses its ability to transport material and settles it – this is called accumulation. There are two types of river mouths: estuary and delta.

The sea or the ocean have a strong impact on a narrow strip of land called coast. Waves are constantly moving smaller fragments of rocks on the shore, increasingly crumbling them, creating a beach. This process is called abrasion. As a result of various processes, some coasts grow, others are receding. Depending on the shape of the bottom of the sea and land shores, geological processes, sea currents and some organisms, we distinguish many types of coasts. The most known are: fjord, cliff, Dalmatian, reef, lagoon or skerry.

The wind can have destructive, transporting and building activities. For these processes to take place, the following conditions must simultaneously occur:

• a strong enough wind must blow;

• rocks in the ground must be finely crumbled;

• the ground must not be wet;

• the ground cannot be covered with abundant vegetation.

These conditions are met in the deserts almost all year round and the land‑forming activity is the strongest there. There are three main types of deserts: erg (sandy desert), serir (gravel desert), hamada (rocky desert). Blowing of fine rock material by the wind is called deflation. Blown sand can be moved even over long distances. Mounds made this way are called dunes (e.g. barchan or parabolic dunes). Sand grains carried by the wind can hit rocks, grind, groove, smoothen and scratch them – this is corrasion. Closer to the surface of the Earth, the process of corrasion is the strongest. Various, very fanciful rock forms are created, for example rocky mushrooms, yardangs or ventifacts.

Weathering of rocks is the process of chemical or physical disintegration. Physical (mechanical), chemical (e.g. karst), and biological weathering has been distinguished. Each type of rock weathering occurs under specific climatic conditions. Karst phenomena are all processes and forms, both on the surface and underground, occurring in areas built of soluble rocks (limestones, dolomites, gypsum, chalk, salt).

Mass movements appear on most land areas. Loose rock masses and weathering products (eluvium) can move down the slope under the influence of gravity. Mass movements include: sliding, exfoliating, ripping, creeping.

Volcanism and earthquakes are phenomena that are well known to many inhabitants of our planet. Most of the active volcanoes of the globe are in the Pacific ring of fire. Volcanoes are also found in Europe, Africa, Hawaii and the Caucasus mountains.

A place where lava and other volcanic products escape to the surface of the continents or to the bottom of the sea is called volcano. Magma is hot, molten rocks with an admixture of large amounts of water and gases located under the surface of the ground. Lava is molten rock mass spilling onto the surface. We distinguish conical and shield volcanoes.

The largest and most powerful earthquakes (shakes of the Earth’s crust) are created at the contact zones of the lithosphere plates. The source of the seismic wave propagation has been called the focus of the earthquake. The place located directly above it on the surface of the Earth is the epicentre.