Dodging Doomsday

Geography Unit
What if the Ice Melts?

The aim of this unit is to help young people understand the need for sustainable energy choices. It will challenge them to take personal and collective responsibility for making lifestyle choices that limit our environmental impact.

Key Questions

Developing Pupils’ Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities Developing pupils’ Knowledge, Understanding and Skills
  • Relating cause and effect
  • Weighing up options and making decisions
    (Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making)
  • Agreeing how to work collaboratively
  • Taking personal responsibility for work in groups
    (Working with Others)
  • Generating ideas
  • Following through and making ideas real
    (Being Creative)
Young people should have opportunities to:
  • Develop critical and creative thinking skills to solve geographical problems and make informed decisions in order to develop an understanding of:
  • the dynamic nature of physical & human environments; and
  • the need for social, economic and environmental change to be sustainable.

 

Global warming. What is it? Why is it happening?
Learning Intentions
Pupils are learning … 		Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities
… to ask focused questions. Teacher leads class discussion about the term ‘Global Warming’ to find out what is already known. Ask pupils what question do we need to ask about global warming and climate change.
… to sort and order different types of questions. Each pupil thinks of a question or questions and writes it down.
Display all the questions.
Working in pairs, the pupils study all the questions and try to sort them under themes or sub-headings, for example, ‘Causes’, ‘Consequences’, ‘Actions’ or ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘Why’ and ‘How’ etc.

… to agree a way of working collaboratively.
Working With Others

 The challenge
Global Warming. Why is it happening and why should we care?

The pupils are set a challenge to produce a display or presentation to address this issue using their themes or sub-headings as a possible structure.

They may have a choice of presentation formats, such as a notice board , an electronic presentation (for example using PowerPoint or a mind-mapping programme), or digital video.

To successfully complete the challenge in the time scale, the pupils must:

  • work effectively in groups of four or five;
  • agree the criteria that would make a quality display or presentation;
  • generate ideas for addressing the challenge and create an action plan to meet the deadline;
  • agree roles and responsibilities (for example, researcher, illustrator, presenter etc).

 

Why should we care? What are likely to be the main effects?
Learning Intentions
Pupils are learning … 		Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities

…to explain links between the causes and effects.
Thinking, problem solving, decision making

…to predict possible implications of climate change on their lives.
…to consider the likelihood of these implications.

 Global Warming. Possible Impacts…

Some of the groups could concentrate on the global impact of climate change for their challenge, exploring the implications of, for example: sea-level change, desertification, loss of bio-diversity, spread of disease, extreme weather events etc.

Other groups might concentrate on the impact of climate change for Northern Ireland , thinking about possible impacts on local buildings, the local landscape (farmland, woodlands, coasts, plants and animals), sport and leisure, water resources, energy demands, flooding etc. They rank each impact as likely, unlikely or uncertain and explain their choice.

… to present information/ideas clearly to suit audience and purpose.
…to make judgements and respond positively to others work.

The groups present their displays to the whole class, outlining their findings and their modes of working. They answer questions from the teacher and classmates on their findings.
Opportunity to assess Communication
  Peer assessment
Pupils nominate the group who they think made the best presentation, and explain their choice.
… to use a map to present information. The class revisits the list of questions drawn up at the beginning and considers how many they have answered.

The global implications may be summarised on a world map and Northern Ireland implications on a local one.

 

How is it our fault? How do we contribute to the problem?
Learning Intentions Pupils are learning … Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities
… to evaluate the impact of lifestyle on the planet. Pupils carry out an ecological footprint audit to determine the impact of their household on the planet.

Useful website:
A range of audit tools can be found at the website below.

http://www.geography.btinternet.co.uk/ecoprint.htm

 

What can I/we do? How can we change our lifestyles to live more lightly?
Learning Intentions Pupils are learning … Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities
… to reach agreement on a class charter for action.
… to generate ideas.
… to value others ideas.
…to stimulate own thinking.
…to make ideas real.
Being Creative

Pupils work in groups to generate ideas for a classroom charter to help reduce their contribution to climate change as a class or a whole school community. They think of as many ideas as possible (quantity) and record them all without evaluation. Then they evaluate the ideas and distill the ones that would be most practical and effective (quality).

Ask pupils to consider how effective this strategy is for generating ideas.

The refined ideas are shared with the whole class and used to draw up an agreed classroom/whole school charter for energy conservation.

The class agrees how to communicate this charter with the whole school. They decide how to monitor and evaluate its effectiveness.

 
… to generate and realise ideas for making local community/business links.

Making Local Links
Pupils work in groups to prepare advice about energy conservation measures (in the form of bullet points, cartoons or quizzes) for a particular group within the local area such as parents, local shopkeepers, feeder primary schools, youth-clubs or local businesses.

There may be opportunities to develop links with Technology and Design, ICT or Art and Design to create effective displays, for example, bulletins, posters, fridge-magnets, calendars etc.

 

What are the real energy choices for Northern Ireland?
Learning Intentions Pupils are learning … Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities
… about renewable resources.
… to be aware of pros and cons 		Pupils explore potential renewable energy sources for Northern Ireland and evaluate their appropriateness.
… to identify spatial patterns and explain them. Ask the class to describe and explain the distribution of wind farms in Northern Ireland.
… to demonstrate empathy with different people/groups. They investigate some of the issues around the location of wind-farms and write a dialogue for two or more people expressing different viewpoints about them.

Useful website:
Protest over wind-farm plan – BBC report

 
… to generate ideas for fieldwork.
… to draw up an Environmental Impact Assessment tool. 		A possible fieldwork activity could involve an Environmental Impact Assessment at a wind farm site to consider the impact of turbines and access roads on aspects of the natural landscape, biodiversity, drainage etc.

 

… to analyse and interpret an Ordnance Survey map.
… identify possible options.
… to weigh up pros and cons of each.
… to make and justify a decision.
… to support an argument.
Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making

… to write a persuasive report.
…to predict and address counter arguments.

 

 Decision Making Challenge

To make an argument for or write a persuasive report about the best location for a wind generator/wind farm in the local area.

Pupils work in groups to agree a location for a wind turbine/farm in the local area. They use the information on a 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey (OS) map to complete a decision making chart outlining:

  • Why a decision is necessary.
  • What the possible options are.
  • What the pros and cons of each option are.
  • What the best options are having weighed up the pros and cons.
  • What the final decision is.

They present their reports highlighting the benefits of their decision. They predict counter-arguments and outline how they could address the concerns of other individual or groups who might be affected by their decision.

Opportunity to assess Communication

 

 

What are the energy choices facing a developing world country?
Learning Intentions Pupils are learning … Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities

… to access relevant information about a distant place.

 Developing Global Awareness

Pupils investigate a developing world country and the energy problems that they experience.

For example, Haiti , Guatemala and Nepal have all suffered flooding and landslides as a result of local people cutting down the natural vegetation to use for fuel.

Useful websites:
Christian Aid
BBC News Report

… to ask geographical questions. Pupils share their initial perceptions of the country.

Generate and share out a range of enquiry-based questions to find out about distant locations.
…to challenge stereotypes and perceptions of that country. They research these questions and present their answers to the class. Compare and contrast their initial perceptions of the country with their more informed answers.

Useful website:
Oxfam

…to understand interrelationships between physical and human environments.

…to relate cause and effect.

…to generate possible solutions.
Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making 		They show the causes and effects of cutting down vegetation to use for fuel on a flow diagram, storyboard or concept map.

Ask them to generate a number of possible ideas to solve this problem. Evaluate and discuss each idea.

Consider possible ‘real’ solutions, for example solar box cookers.

Useful websites:
Solar Box Cookers
Journey To Forever

They use these examples to draw up a checklist of factors for defining ‘Appropriate Technology’.

 
…how to take action to address a real world problem.
… how to take action to address a real world problem. 		Whole School Activity
The class or school could link with an NGO to identify fundraising activities for an appropriate technology solution for a particular developing country.
…to make and maintain e-mail links with school in developing world country. Useful websites:

British Council – Windows on the Wrold
Department for International Development – Global Dimension


What have I learned and how?
Learning Intentions Pupils are learning … Possible Learning, Teaching and Assessment Activities

…to reflect on what has been learned and how.
Self Management

Self-Assessment
Pupils discuss the activities they have been involved in during this unit. They record their personal reflections about climate change and related issues in their notebooks or learning logs using prompts such as:
  • “I think…”
  • “I learned …”
  • “The hardest part was …”
  • “The best part was…”
  • “What I think will happen is …”
  • “The questions I still want answered are …”

…to review learning and identify aspects that might be improved.
Self Management

They also reflect on and record:
  • The activities they enjoyed best and why;
  • The particular Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities (TS and PCs) they felt they were best at;
  • Those aspects of the TS and PCs they might need to focus more on in the future.
  • How they felt about their overall learning during the task.

 

 

Development of Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate skills in using maps (and GIS), fieldwork equipment and methods of data collection in undertaking geographical enquiry.

  • Research and manage information effectively to investigate geographical issues, using Mathematics and ICT where appropriate.
  • Show deeper geographical understanding by thinking critically and flexibly, solving problems and making informed decisions, using Mathematics and ICT where appropriate.
  • Demonstrate creativity and initiative when developing ideas and following them through.
  • Work effectively with others.
  • Demonstrate self-management by working systematically, persisting with tasks, evaluating and improving own performance.
  • Communicate effectively in oral, visual, written, mathematical and ICT formats, showing clear awareness of audience and purpose.
Links with Key Elements Links with Learning for Life and Work
Education for Sustainable Development

Mutual Understanding

Media Awareness

Local and Global Citizenship
Key Concept – Democracy and Active Participation (through a local Action Project).
Key Concept – Equality and Social Justice (through links with NGOs).