Topic: Africa – climatic zonation

Autor: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

Elementary school student VIII

Core curriculum

XV. Selected problems and geographical regions of Africa: the location of Africa and its impact on air circulation and distribution of atmospheric precipitation; climatic‑vegetal‑soil zone;

Student:

1) describes and explains the air circulation in the tropic zone, showing its relation to the distribution of precipitation;

2) explains on the basis of the thematic maps the existence of climatic‑vegetal‑soil zonatism in Africa;

Purpose of the lesson: The student will characterize the climate‑vegetative‑soil zones and describe the air circulation in Africa.

Criteria of success

• you will determine the geographical location of Africa;

• you will provide characteristics of climatic zones;

• give the reasons for the symmetrical arrangement of climate zones;

• you will explain the differences between trade winds and antipassages;

• you characterize rainfall in the tropic zone,

• you correlate climatic, plant and soil zones.

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 e‑podreczniki.pl platform;

• discussion;

• brainstorm;

• individual work, work in pairs, work in groups and the whole class team.

Teaching measures

• e‑manual for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• Google Maps,

• physical map of Africa,

• geographical atlases;

• projector;

• tablets / computers.

Lesson plan

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the topic of classes and informs students about the goals of the lesson.

2. The teacher asks the student to launch the Google Maps interactive whiteboard and display Africa in the satellite view. Students analyze the photo together.

3. Students work in pairs. They search for Africa in the geographical atlas. They determine its geographical location and coastline. Then they discuss their observations in the class forum.

Realization

1. Joint analysis of maps from the e‑podreczniki displayed on the interactive whiteboard: Types of climate in Africa and Average annual sums of atmospheric precipitation. Students give the factors determining the types of climate. They use source materials such as Internet resources, a textbook. The teacher initiates a discussion on this topic.

2. Students search for warm and cold sea currents that flow around Africa. They point them on the wall map of Africa and determine their flow direction.

3. Students present relationships between sea currents and the climate – brainstorming.

4. Students, using various source materials, such as a geography teaching handbook, Internet resources, will become familiar with the issue of air circulation in the tropic zone and precipitation in the tropic zone. Then students jointly analyze the air circulation pattern in the tropic zone. The teacher guides the students to the proper course of reasoning, he explains, he adds.

5. Work in 4 groups. Each group prepares data on the selected climate zone of Africa: occurrence, characteristics of the climate, analysis of climate maps of individual climate zones.

• Group I – equatorial climate zone – equatorial climate,

• Group II – equatorial climate zone – equatorial climate,

• Group III – zone of tropical climates,

• Group IV – sub‑tropical climate zone.

6. Groups present on the class forum developed issues using the African wall map.

Summary

1. To summarize the lesson, students perform interactive exercises on the interactive whiteboard.

2. The teacher evaluates students within one selected group. It takes into account the contribution and their possibilities. It also evaluates the work of other students.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Africa – climatic zonation

On the surface of Earth there is a spatial order of elements of natural environment, which changes along with the latitude. This phenomenon is known as the geographical zonation. The reason for zonation is the shape of Earth and its location relative to the Sun, which involves the angle of the sun rays, which in return affects changes of the sun energy reaching parallels. Looking at Africa – located symmetrically to the Equator – we can prove the climatic, vegetation and soil zonation, and present interaction between elements of the environment.
Due to the symmetrical location of Africa in relation to the Equator approx. 4/5 of the land is located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Flatted surface of the continent and lack of huge mountain ranges allows free atmospheric circulation, typical for the hot zone.

Other important geographical factors influencing climate types in Africa are the highland character of the continent with high edges on the coasts and the system of ocean currents. Two climate elements – air temperature and precipitation volume, and its annual course – are the basis for the distinction of climate types in Africa. In the tropics, the average annual air temperatures fall between 20°C and 30°C. Slightly lower average annual temperatures, from 10°C to 20°C, are recorded only on the northern and southern ends of the continent and in high altitude areas. The sums of annual precipitation also demonstrate a visible zonation. Details were presented on the map below.

In the equatorial zone, precipitation is high – exceeding 2 thousand mm. The farther north and south, the less rainfall. In Sahara, cut by the Tropic of Cancer, the annual amount of precipitation does not exceed 250 mm. On the contrary, on the Kalahari semi‑desert, which lies on the Tropic of Capricorn, the precipitation is slightly higher and ranges from 250 mm to 500 mm. In the coastal zone aocean currents impact the amount of rainfall. The cold Benguela Current contributed to the creation of the Namib Desert located on the southwest coast. The map of types of climate in Africa and climatic diagrams show their arrangement in zones.

The geographical location of Africa and the impact of geographical factors mean that:

• climate types are arranged symmetrically with the Equator;

• hot and warm climate types prevail throughout the entire continent;

• distribution of precipitation is conditioned by the atmospheric circulation in the tropic zone and it also has a symmetrical orientation with respect to the Equator;

• the course of precipitation in particular months determines the African seasons – rainy and dry.