Topic: Blue planet Earth

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Target group

Students of an elementary school (geography).

Core curriculum

III. Lands and oceans on Earth: the distribution of lands and oceans, the first geographical expeditions. Pupil:

2) lists the names of continents and oceans and indicates their location on the globe and the map of the world, and determines their position relative to the equator and zero meridian;

General aim of education

Students call the oceans, determine their location on the globe and explain the phenomenon of tides.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• indicate the oceans on the map;

• explain what the sea is;

• discuss the phenomenon of high tide and outflow.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• 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;

• sheets of blue paper, continental contours, glue.

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 of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

• The teacher initiates a conversation introducing the topic.

  • What do you know about ...?

  • Have you ever met ...?

Realization

• The teacher asks students to read the given fragment of the abstract and try to remember its content. Then the participants, working in pairs, ask each other about the knowledge of the fragment.

• The teacher shows students the location of the continents in the world. Students use the continental templates to glue them on a blue sheet of paper. Then, using the abstract, they sign the oceans. Students present their work, compare the correctness of performance..

• Students, working individually or in pairs, carry out interactive exercises to check and consolidate knowledge learned during the lesson. Selected people discuss the correct solutions for interactive exercises. The teacher completes or corrects the statements of the proteges.

• The teacher asks students to explain why the Earth is called the blue planet?.

• The teacher announces a movie. He instructs his pupils to write a research question and a hypothesis in the form provided in the abstract. Then he plays the video and the students note their observations and conclusions. The teacher points the person who shares his insights and explains the reasonableness of the conclusions noted.

Summary

• The teacher chooses one student by random method and asks him or her to explain in own words the meaning of a given word or concept learned during the lesson.

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

• At the end of the class, the teacher asks the students questions:

  • What did you find important and interesting in class?

  • What was easy and what was difficult?

  • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

  Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

Homework

• Develop a lap book containing issues learned during the lesson and bring your work to the next class.

• 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

Blue planet Earth

It seems that rivers and lakes contain a lot of water, but it is only a small part of what we will find in the oceans. Fresh water accounts for merely 3.5% of the water on the Earth (glaciers, surface and underground water on land). The rest is salt water contained in seas and oceans. All oceans are interconnected, forming a huge body of water called the World Ocean or Global Ocean.
An ocean is a very vast area covered by saline water, partly separated from other bodies of water. Distinct boundaries of oceans occur only where they border on continents or archipelagoes or are established arbitrarily (e.g. they are established in places where there are significant differences in temperature and water salinity). Today, we divide the World Ocean into 4 oceans.

• The Pacific Ocean, also called the Pacific, is the largest – it accounts for almost a half of the Earth's volume of saline water. It extends from the eastern coastal areas of Asia and Australia to the western coastal areas of both Americas, and in the south it is bounded by Antarctica.

• The Atlantic Ocean lies between the western shores of Europe and Africa and the eastern coasts of both Americas.

• The Indian Ocean lies between eastern Africa, southern Asia, western Australia and Antarctica.

• The Arctic Ocean lies around the North Pole and is almost completely surrounded by the northern shores of Asia, Europe and North America. It has a well‑developed coastline with numerous bays.

Some parts of the oceans differ from the neighbouring water bodies in terms of their physical, chemical or biological properties. We call these areas seas. They are at least partially separated by continental shores, clusters of islands (archipelagos), peninsulas or underwater sea‑bottom elevations. A fragment of the sea surrounded by land on three sides is called a bay.

Poland has access to one sea – the Baltic Sea, which is a part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic Sea is enclosed by land on all sides and only a few straits connect it with the North Sea. The Baltic Sea is shallower than most other seas and its salinity is much lower.

The water of the World Ocean is in constant motion. Tides are the alternate rising (high tide) and falling (low tide) of the water level in the seas and oceans. The tides are mainly caused by the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon. As a result, in sea areas that are closer to the Moon in a given moment, and on the opposite side of the globe, the water level rises, i.e. a high tide occurs, while in other areas the water level falls, that is a low tide is observed. Due to the rotation of the Earth around its own axis, high tide and low tide alternate approximately every 12.5 hours. Therefore, it is possible to calculate the time of high tide and low tide in a given place, which is very important, for example, in port cities.

• Most of the Earth's surface is covered by the Global Ocean.

• At present, we distinguish 4 oceans: Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and Arctic Ocean.

• Some parts of the oceans, separated for example by straits and islands, are called seas.

• The alternate rising and falling of the water level in seas and oceans is called tides.

ocean, sea, the Pacific, high tide, low tide