Topic: Asia – the great contrasts. Waterway network

Target group

8th‑grade students of elementary school

The core curriculum

XIV. Selected problems and geographical regions of Asia: Asia as a continent of geographical contrasts.

Student:

1) It shows on the basis of general geographical and thematic maps that Asia is an area of great geographical contrasts.

General aim of education

Students will show on the map of the Asia River, give them their catchment and locate the largest surface and deepest lakes of Asia.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• indicate the largest rivers of Asia on the map;

• explain what are periodic rivers and no outflow areas;

• indicate the rivers in the basins of the four oceans;

• will tell the largest lakes in terms of size, depth.

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;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim and planned course of the lesson. They explain the success criteria to be achieved by the students.

• The teacher plays the recording of the abstract. Every now and then he stops it, asking the students to tell in their own words what they have just heard.This way, students practice listening comprehension.

Realization

• The teacher asks students to show the dependence of the river network on the climate and give examples on the wall map of Asia.

• The teacher divides the students into teams. Each team develops a mental map with a division into the catchment. He makes a ranking of the longest rivers of Asia. He explains what the term periodic river means, shows examples on the map and gives the reason for the occurrence of these rivers. Students share tasks within the group. They use geographical atlases, Statistical Yearbook and Internet resources.

• Each group presents a completed task on the class forum. While indicating the examples, students use the map from the e‑textbook, Asia Zlewiska, which they display on the interactive whiteboard.

• Work in pairs. Students using geographical atlases look for the largest surface and deepest lakes in Asia. Then, people willing to show examples on the wall map of Asia.

• Students will explain the term cryptodepression and the outflow lake. They work on the basis of source materials such as a geography teaching handbook, Internet resources.

• Students perform interactive exercises. They approach the multimedia board in order. Exercises: Insert the river in the right order starting from the longest and name the river, which is marked with the appropriate number.

Summary

• The student indicated by the teacher sums up the lesson, telling what he has learned and what skills he/she has been practicing.

• The teacher assesses the students, taking into account the contribution and their possibilities..

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

Asia – the great contrasts. Waterway network

The waterway network of Asia is shaped by the terrain and the main features of the Asian climate.

The Asian continent is home to basins of all four oceans. The biggest endorheic basin in the world is located in the central part of the continent. It is cut out from the oceans by mountains. The rivers from that region drain into the Caspian Sea (Lake) and other endorheic lakes, or lose water as they flow downstream, for example, in the sands of the desert.

There is a big difference in the rivers' waterflow in certain regions of Asia due to uneven precipitation and temperature distribution throughout the year. The rivers with basins within the reach of the monsoon climate ceratinly differ from the rivers flowing through other regions. A good example of this is the longest Asian river – the Yangtze (6380 km), the source of which is in the Tibetan Plateau. It flows to the east, towards the Pacific Ocean. The water levels in the Yangtze are high all year, but the highest ones are definitely in spring and summer, when the upper section of the river is supplied with water from melting snow and mountain glaciers. At the same time, the middle and lower section of the river receives heavy rainfall brought by the summer monsoon. A similar phenomenon occurs in many other rivers of Southeast Asia.
The rivers of North Asia are part of the basin of the Arcitc Ocean. The big rivers in that region are: the Lena (4400 km long), the Ob River (3650 km) and the Yenisei (3490 km). Their basins strech towards the cold subpolar and polar continental climate. As a result, they are covered with ice for 6‑7 months a year, and the highest water levels are observed in spring and summer, when the snow and ice in the source are are melting.
The situation is drastically different for the water network in Central Asia, in the endorheic area. Here one can find losing streams. Many of them flow into endorheic lakes and swamps or get lost in the sands of the desert.

In Asia, there are numerous lakes. The biggest Asian lake is the Caspian Sea, a remnant of an ancient sea. Today, it is an endorheic reservoir with saline water. The bigesst drainage lake in Asia is Lake Baikal, in the basin of Yenisei. It is the deepest lake in the world. Lake Baikal is 1620 m deep. Located in the rift valley, it is the biggest freshwater reservoir in the world.

The Aral Sea was also a water reservoir once. However, it has been gradually drying out for several decades now due to the dry climate and human activities (people take too much water supplies from the rivers that feed the lake).
Another big and interesting endorheic lake is Lake Balkhash – there is saline water in its eastern part and fresh water in its western part, which is caused by the Ili River that flows into the lake.

Look at the photo below presenting the contrasts in the Asian waterway network.