Subject: Surface waters in Europe

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

6th‑grade student of elementary school.

Core curriculum

VII. Geography of Europe: location and boundaries of the continent; political division of Europe; main features of the natural environment in Europe (...)

Purpose of the lesson

Pupils discuss Europe's surface waters and indicate them on the map.

Success criteria

• you will divide the surface waters;

• you will show the main rivers and lakes of Europe on the map;

• you explain the diversity of the water network in different regions of Europe;

• you will tell the catchment in Europe;

• you will recognize rivers that have a delta and funnel‑like outlet;

• you will determine the locations of glaciers in Europe.

Key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in a foreign language;

• IT competences;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Methods / forms of work

Work with multimedia, work with text, work with a map, discussion.

Individual work and work in pairs.

Teaching measures

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• projector;

• tablets / computers;

• physical map of Europe;

• Europe map – surface waters;

• geographical atlases.

Lesson phases

Preliminary

1. The teacher gives the subject and the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher asks students to give differences between the river and the lake.

3. Students on an interactive or traditional board draw an example river from the source to the mouth. They mark tributaries on it.

Implementation

1. The teacher instructs his pupils to look at the river network of Europe in geographical atlases and give it characteristics. The teacher then presents the „River network in Europe” map, which is included in the abstract. Students analyze the distribution of rivers together.

2. The teacher asks students what affects the density of the river network. He conducts discussions by directing students to the correct answers (precipitation size, type of rocks in the ground, slope of the area and type of vegetation).

3. Pupils, working in pairs and using geographical atlases, exchange the main rivers of Europe. They mutually check their ability to locate them on the map. They define the basins of these rivers.

4. Volunteers on the wall map of Europe indicate the largest rivers, starting from the source to the mouth.

5. The teacher presents the map of the „catchment in Europe” in the abstract. Students classify rivers in appropriate catchment areas.

6. Students get acquainted with the infographics called „Characteristics of the river network in the great physico‑geographical regions of Europe”. They define the features of rivers in Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Europe.

7. The teacher discusses the types of river outlets, the way they originate and the differences between the delta and funnel outflow. Students, using the map, classify rivers because of the estuary.

8. Students on an interactive or traditional board draw the river's delta and estuary.

9. The teacher again presents the „River network in Europe” map. Students analyze the estuaries of the largest rivers.

10. Students perform an interactive exercise: they determine whether the relevant European regions and outlet types have been matched to the names of the rivers.

11. Students, working in pairs, search for the largest lakes on the map of Europe and explain the reasons for their occurrence. They give the names of the countries in whose territories the lakes are located.

12. Volunteers indicate the main lakes of Europe on the wall map.

13. The teacher asks pupils to recall the information they learned in earlier classes and exchanged the conditions for the formation of the glacier.

14. Students based on the sources available to them determine the locations of glaciers in Europe. They point them on the map.

Summary

1. Students perform interactive exercises that consolidate the acquired knowledge (single‑choice exercises and an exercise with flashcards).

2. The teacher assesses the students' work during the classes, taking into account their activity and individual possibilities.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Surface waters in Europe

Waters are an exceptionally important component of the natural environment. Recall water circulation in nature. A part of this circulation comprises surface waters which rivers, lakes, swamps and glaciers belong to. This lesson presents variety of the river network and distribution of the Lakelands in Europe.

A mass of water, flowing in a natural channel, driven by gravitation, is called a river. According to its length and size of the drainage basin, rivers belong to one of three categories: small, medium and large. According to its gradient which affects river’s velocity, rivers belong to one of three categories: mountain rivers, highland rivers and lowland rivers. All rivers, also called watercourses, are supplied by rainwater and water coming from melting snow or glacier. These waters flow on the surface but also saturate the soil only to emerge again as sources. Watercourses are divided into permanent and periodical, with regard to their flow period.
The aforementioned classifications will serve to characterise the river network in Europe.

Disposition of the river network existing in a certain area depends on many components of the natural environment. Density of the river network is affected by: precipitation magnitude, type of rocks in the ground, land inclination and vegetation type. At the same time, flowing waters act on the other components of the natural environment. Using a map you can read that the highest total annual precipitation in Europe occurs in the mountains. These lands are inland areas for many rivers. Describing the river network of Europe, one must also indicate the catchment areas where the rivers discharge their waters.

Lakes are an important component of the water network of Europe. Most of them are located in Northern Europe and in the mountains. As you might remember, in Quaternary, European climate cooled down, and North Europe, as well as parts of West and East Europe, became covered with the ice‑sheet. Areas with large concentrations of lakes, called lakelands (or lake districts), are results of the ice‑sheet activity. The largest lakeland is the Finnish Lakeland, lying in North Europe, with more than 60,000 of post‑glacial lakes. Some European lakes with large areas are of mixed origin, tectonic and post‑glacial. These include the following: Ladoga with the area of 18,400 sq km (the largest lake in Europe) as well as Onega, Vänern and Vättern. In the Alps, there are some large lakes such as Maggiore, Garda and Como lying in Italy as well as Swiss‑French Geneva and Swiss‑German Constance. On the other hand, not far away from there, in Slovenia and Croatia, there is an abundance of small karst lakes.

Mountain glaciers also belong to surface waters. In Europe, such glaciers are found in the Arctic Isles, Iceland, Svalbard, the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the Alps, where one can find 3,200 of glaciers with total area of about 2,700 sq km. The largest one is the valley glacier, Aletsch Gletscher, in the Bernese Alps. Its length is 25 km, thickness reaches 700 m, and its area is 86 sq km. As a result of slow global warming, the area of glaciers is regularly reduced.