Topic: Climate change

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

Grade IV
5. Man and the environment. Pupil:
1) conducts observations and simple experiments showing pollution of the immediate environment (air, water, soil);

General aim of education

Students demonstrate how air pollution affects the climate.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• explain what the climate is;

• describe the mechanism of the greenhouse effect;

• describe human influence on the climate;

• distinguish global warming from the greenhouse effect.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• three jars with screw caps, double‑sided self‑adhesive tape.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

Realization

• The teacher asks students to read the abstract and write in the notebook examples of the human impact on the climate.

• The teacher divides the class into groups - field activities. Each group conducts one, drawn, observation. 1) Detecting the presence of dust in the air: Material: three jars with screw caps, double‑sided self‑adhesive tape. Execution: On the upper side of each cap, apply three strips of adhesive tape. Set up measuring instruments at three different points: 1) surrounded by trees, 2) on the window sill, 3) near the street. Take off the tape strip one by one, the second after two, the third after three - and stick them on a white sheet. Look at the stripes under the magnifying glass. Pay attention to the transparency and color of the tapes. Record the results. Formulate observations regarding the amount of dust in specific places. 2) Determining the air pollution in the area: Material: spruce branches. Break the spruce branch with at least three side branches. Using the graphics, determine the age of needles that have not fallen from the branch. Based on the result, determine the state of air pollution in your area..

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to complete the sentence: In today's lesson, I learned that ....

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Climate change

The cause of mysterious weather changes in 1816 was the eruption of the Tambor volcano in remote Indonesia. During the explosion in 1815, a huge amount of ash was released into the atmosphere. It is this ash floating around our planet that blocked the sun's access to the Earth's surface. The result of this phenomenon were rapid changes in the weather, which we call volcanic winter.

Volcanic winter threatens the life of plants and animals. However, it is a natural phenomenon that we can not prevent. As you can see, volcanoes have a huge impact on climate.
What is the climate? It is the whole of the weather phenomena (temperature, precipitation, wind) occurring in a given area in the long‑term. We can talk about, for example, a mild coastal climate or even a climate on Earth.

The climate is influenced by factors such as:

• the height of the Sun above the horizon – the lower, the colder;

• distance from the sea – close to the sea, winters are milder, but cooler during the year than inland;

• altitude above sea level – altitude decreases the average air temperature during the year.

Over the millions of years, the climate has changed, but it has usually been slow. Unfortunately, not only volcanic eruptions are the cause of dust deposition in the Earth's atmosphere. Industry and even the everyday activities that we perform are also responsible for this. Because of them, the climate changes much faster than it used to do.

There are many factors changing the climate. These may be the natural factors mentioned above, such as volcanic eruptions, but also those caused by humans, such as industry. We know that plants extract carbon dioxide and produce oxygen that we all breathe. So what happens when we cut down forests? Yes, oxygen will be less and less, but the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled by us will increase.

Carbon dioxide belongs to the so‑called greenhouse gases. They surround our planet and – although they are only invisible gases – they work exactly like windows in a greenhouse. They allow you to warm the Earth's surface with the rays of the Sun, but later the heat can not get out. These effects of these gases are called the greenhouse effect. A greenhouse gas is also methane. It arises naturally, in swamps and mines due to decomposition of the remains of organisms.

The greenhouse effect means that the temperatures that allow the existence of life persist on Earth. However, further heating the surface of the planet contrary to appearances is not favorable. It may cause desertification of fertile areas. In addition, it results in melting ice caps at the poles. There is a view that this may cause an increase in the level of the oceans. It is currently growing at a rate of around 3 - 5 mm per year. Raising the average temperature around the world is called global warming.

Climate change is not just global warming. Other problems happen more frequently, such as violent weather events like hurricanes. Also the change of the climate (hotter and hotter winters) is the result of climate change occurring on Earth. To some extent these changes are natural and inevitable. However, uncontrolled industry and the destruction of the natural environment by humans significantly contributed to their acceleration and intensification. So let's take care of the natural environment, because we can make the climate change milder.

• In the atmosphere there are greenhouse gases that retain heat from the Sun at the surface of the planet. This phenomenon is called the greenhouse effect.

• Increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causes the phenomenon of global warming.

• The ozone hole and the greenhouse effect cause the melting of the ice caps at the poles, which is the reason for the increase in the level of oceans.

• Climate change is not only global warming, but also the frequent occurrence of violent weather phenomena.