Topic: Northern Europe - the Scandanavian countries

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Addressee

VI grade elementary school pupil

Core curriculum

VII. Geography of Europe: the location and boundaries of the continent, the main features of the natural environment in Europe. Agriculture, industry and services in selected European countries.

11. shows the relationship between features of the natural environment of selected European countries and the use of various energy sources.

Purpose of the lesson:

The student will define the characteristics of the natural environment and will show the relationship between him and the use of various energy sources and will discuss the economy of the Scandinavian countries.

Success criteria

• discuss the influence of the ice sheet on the shape of the Scandinavian area;

• using the thematic maps, you will discuss the natural environment of the Scandinavian countries;

• you will show the relationship between the features of the natural environment of selected European countries and the use of various energy sources.

Key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in foreign languages;

• IT competences;

• learning to learn.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

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

• discussion;

• poster;

• individual work, work in pairs, work in groups.

Teaching measures

• e‑manual for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• physical map of Europe;

• Google Earth;

• geographical atlases;

• projector;

• tablets / computers.

Lesson plan

Preliminary

1. The teacher informs students about the goals of the lesson.

2. Ask the willing student to use the Google Earth application and search for the Scandinavian countries. The teacher draws attention to the geographical location of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland and initiates a discussion on this subject.

Implementation

1. Students, working in pairs and using geographical atlases, determine the geographical position of Scandinavian countries. Eager students indicate countries on the wall map of Europe.

2. The teacher divides the class into 5 groups. Each group receives a sheet of paper and markers and has to elaborate issues related to the Scandinavian country drawn by the group (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland):

• geographical location;

• Capital;

• area and population;

• the natural environment;

• climate;

• economy;

• agriculture and forestry.

Each group distributes tasks among its members. He creates a poster, which he then discusses on the class forum.

3. The teacher draws attention to the occurrence of the warm Norwegian Current, which causes a significant global warming. Thanks to this, it is possible to sail all the way along the coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula, far beyond the northern Arctic Circle.

4. Brainstorming - what is the relationship between the natural environment characteristics of countries such as: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland for the use of various energy sources? Discussion. Students create a mental map on the board.

5. The teacher emphasizes that Scandinavian countries belong to economically developed countries and have one of the highest GDP per capita in the world. The population living in Scandinavia is one of the first places in the world in terms of health and longevity.

6. The teacher draws attention to the coasts occurring in Scandinavia and indicates their place of occurrence.

Summary

1. At the conclusion of the lesson, students perform exercises on the interactive whiteboard.

2. The teacher assesses students within the group, taking into account the contribution and their possibilities. A good way to objectively evaluate is to focus on the evaluation of one team and to pay attention to the self‑esteem of students – what I did well and what I could not do and what the reason is.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Northern Europe - the Scandanavian countries

Northern Europe forms a mainland that consists of the Scanadanavian Peninsula and the Kola Peninsula and the Karelian Isthmus. There are smaller islands located on the European shelf in the Arctic Ocean, as well as volcanic islands in the North Atlantic. The biggest of these is Iceland, which is Europe's second largest island.

Northern Europe has great diversity in terms of its geological structure.

It also has varied landforms. During the Quarternary Period, the Scandanavian Peninsula consisted of an area on which a glacier approximately 3km thick was formed. Masses of ice broke away, eroded and exposed the rocky bed. This is why the distinctive feature of the Scandanavian mountains are plateaux – the so‑called fjelds, above which can be found isolated, dome‑shaped peaks. On the western mountainous coast of the Scandanavian Peninsula can be found characteristic landforms, the so‑called fjords, which are long, winding, narrow and deep bays that run perpendicular to the coast. They were created in such a way that flowing rivers of ice from the mountains that entered the V‑shaped river valleys, transforming the valley into a U‑shape. As the temperature rose and the ice sheet melted, the sea level rose, which flooded lower parts of the transformed glacial valleys.

The largest island in Northern Europe is Iceland, which is a part of the North Atlantic Ridge. It is an island of volvanic rock. The upland consists of a plateau rising 700‑1000m above sea level.

Using the geographical coordinates, write down the capital city

There are four countries in Northern Europe with strong historical and cultural ties. These are Norway and Sweden on the Scandanavian Peninsula. Finland is connected too, while Iceland is a separate island. The fifth country, with strong links to the four mentioned, is Denmark, situated in the Jutland Peninsula, and is considered part of Western Europe. All of these countries are included under the heading of the Scandanavian countries.

The geographic location and features of the natural environment of the Scandanavian countries have an impact on the development of certain areas of their economy, but also impose restrictions on economic activity.

• their location in Northern Europe, in the open ocean and sea has contributed to the development of a maritime economy, utilising the biological and mineral resouces found in the seas and oceans.

• a short growing season and post‑glacial soils hinder the development of agriculture north of 60°N (the northern limit for cereal crops); whilst on the Jutland Peninsula and surrounding islands in the southern part of the Scandanavian Peninsula, conditions allow for the development of intensive agriculture; Denmark's intensive agriculture is based on high commercial production of crops and livestock, especially the breeding of horned cattle and pigs; Denmark is number 3 in the world for the production of milk per capita – 885 kg in 2010.

• One great natural resource for the countries of the Scandanavian Peninsula are forests. -- Finland and Sweden -- harvest large quantities of wood for the timber and paper industries; timber, cellulose, paper and cardboard are important exports for these countries.

• The Scandanavian countries have well‑developed sea fishing industries; this is an important part of the economies of Iceland and Norway.

• There are large deposits of mineral resources on the Scandanavian Peninsula, including iron and non‑ferrous metals; these are mined in Sweden, Norway and Finland; in the Norwegian part of the North Sea shelf, oil and gas fields have been exploited; in 2013 Norway extracted 90.3 million tons of crude oil, which makes it number 14 in the world; for natural gas, it ranks seventh in the world.

• A varied terrain and a dense network of rivers rich in water make it possible to obtain electricity from accumulated water. Hydropower has developed in Norway, Sweden and Iceland. In Norway, it uses fully ecological energy possibilities: cheap energy from river hydroelectric plants covers about 99% of the country's energy demand. However, located in the area of earthquakes, volcanoes and geysers, Iceland uses hot springs of geysers as a source of heating and hot water.