Topic: Current relief of Poland and former geological events

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school.

Core curriculum

IX. The natural environment of Poland compared to Europe: the geographical location of Poland.

The student:

5) shows the influence of mountain‑forming movements and glaciations in Europe on the shape of Poland's surface;

The general aim of education

The students describe the features of the relief of Poland.

Criteria of success

• You will show the relationship between the current relief of Poland and selected geological processes;

• describe the features of the relief of Poland.

• indicate the geographical areas included in the belts of the relief.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in a foreign language;

• mathematical competences;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Methods / forms of work

Work with a map and with multimedia.

Individual work and work in pairs.

Teaching aids

• abstract;

• interactive or traditional board;

• multimedia projector;

• tablets/computers;

• physical wall map of Poland;

• geographical atlases.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

The teacher presents the topic, lesson goal and criteria of success.

Realization

1. The teacher asks the students to look at the physical map of Poland. The students use the hypsometric scale to read the heights of the areas indicated by the teacher and find the lowest place in Poland and the highest peak.

2. The teacher uses the interactive whiteboard to present a graphic showing the hypsographic curve for the area of Poland. Together with the students, the teacher analyses the characteristic features of the vertical relief of our country.

3. The teacher displays a map showing the division of the Polish territory into relief belts. The teacher discusses two characteristic features of the shape of Poland's relief:

• Inclination towards the north‑west direction,

• its belt arrangement (six latitudinal belts).

Volunteers or the students selected by the teacher indicate individual belts of relief on the physical map of Poland.

4. The students do an interactive exercise: they recognize the contours of geographical lands, give their names and determine in which belt these lands are located.

5. The students work in pairs using a geographical atlas. They ask each other questions (one person a time) referring to the location of selected geographical regions on the physical map of Poland, they determine their belonging to individual belts and look for the most important rises (e.g. Silesia Upland - belt of uplands - Śt. Anna Mountain (408 m above sea level).

6. The teacher discusses geological processes that have affected the relief of our country. The students do an interactive exercise: they match the descriptions of the process and the course of the formation of the relief to the given belts of the surface of Poland.

Summary

1. The teacher displays an interactive exercise consisting in matching photographs to specific geographical regions. Volunteers of the students indicated by the teacher define them on the class forum.

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

Contemporary land sculpture in Poland in the light of historic geological events

If internal geological processes did not affect the Earth’s surface, all rock layers would have been laid horizontally – from the earliest ones (situated at the highest depth) to the latest ones. However, internal forces moved those rocks, causing some shifts in their arrangement. In consequence, some folds and faults emerged. In the south, there are the Carpathian Mountains, being fold mountains. In the southwest, there are Sudetes – fold mountains a long time ago which, during the Alpine orogenesis were raised and shifted along the faults, in a process of transformation to fault block mountains.

External processes morph the Earth’s surface by destructive forces (erosion) on one hand, and by building forces (accumulation) on the other. Some erosion examples are easiest to find in the mountains where one can observe great valleys furrowed by rivers or glaciers. Accumulation forms, in turn, are frequent in almost the entire area of the Polish Lowlands. These lands are currently flat or slightly folded, however, a long time ago their shape was much more varied. This is a result of the fact that, in the period of millions of years, most depressions were successively filled with sedimentation carried by waters, glaciers and wind.

A typical feature of land morphology in Poland is belt arrangement of landforms. The territory of Poland is divided by belts, more or less along the parallels, with hills and depressions allocated alternately. Coming from the north, it looks like that:

• shoreline lowlands;

• lakelands;

• the Central Poland Lowlands;

• highlands (uplands);

• basins (dells);

• the mountains.

These land sculpture belts are presented in the following pictures.

The map below illustrates belt arrangement of land sculpture:

• the seashore

• lake district

• central Poland lowlands

• mountain foothills

• highlands

• mountains

This belt arrangement of land sculpture is a consequence of variety of geological processes which occurred (and sometimes are still present) in the territory of Poland. Below, typical features of the Polish landscape have been provided.

In the territory of Poland, lowlands are at advantage. They cover up the entire northern and central part of the country. Highlands (uplands) cover up a belt in the south‑east, and the mountains stretch along the southern border. A typical feature of land morphology in Poland is general inclination of land, from south‑east towards north‑west. Many Polish rivers flow in that direction.

Division of surface, depending on its altitude above sea level, is displayed in a diagram called a hypsographic curve. Its vertical axis indicates absolute altitude while the horizontal axis indicates percentage of total area.

The shape of hypsographic curve informs us about distribution of absolute altitude over a certain area. In case of Poland, we may observe a large, flat area in green colour what unambiguously indicates that lowlands are at advantage. Highlands and mountains are relatively scarce, and high mountains (over 2,000 m above sea level) cover up a mere fraction of the territory of Poland.

An interesting information concerning land morphology is average absolute altitude in a certain area. For Poland, it is very low and amounts to 173 m above sea level. For comparison, in Slovakia it amounts to 440 m above sea level, in Czech Republic – 430 m above sea level, and for Europe as a whole – 292 m above sea level.

• Shape of the land in Poland was influenced by internal geological processes (orogenesis, epeirogenesis, volcanic processes, earthquakes) and external geological processes (weathering, erosion, mass movement, accumulation).

• Typical feature of land morphology in Poland is the belt arrangement.

• Higher belts (the mountains, highlands, lakelands) are separated by lower belts (lowlands, basins).

• In Poland, lowlands prevail – they cover up about 3/4 of total area.