Our beautiful earth: A view from space

Introductory information

Author
Angeliki DELIGIANNI
E-mail
Institute
School Advisor of Central Makedonia, Northern Greece
Author
Sofia Avtzoglou
E-mail
Institute
Experimental Primary School of Thessaloniki Aristotle University, Greece
Target group
Intermediate (14-16 years old)
Subjects
Geography, Natural Sciences (Geoscience or Earth Science)
Aims
  1. Explore the geography of the Earth and learn about countries, cities and continents
  2. Learn the geography of straits, isthmuses and canals
  3. Understand the time difference across the Earth and find out about time zones
  4. Learn greetings and other common expressions in languages of the countries that are explored in the project
  5. Understand that there are connections among the different languages
  6. Learn English expressions with “black” and “red” and thus understand the symbolism behind those colours in the English culture. Explore the symbolism of those colours in the students’ own culture

Key competences

Communication in language(s)
The Communication in foreign languages
  • Develop reading comprehension competence in EFL (skimming, scanning)
  • Build vocabulary related to Earth Science
  • Practise writing skills in English
  • Develop speaking competence in the context of related content terminology
  • Find out about borrowings amongst various languages
  • Find out about the distribution of languages in the world (English, Spanish, Arabic, Slavic languages)
Subject: Geography and natural sciences
  • Learning about the geography of the Earth
  • Learning about countries, their capitals and their position on the globe
  • Learning what are the straits, canals and isthmuses
  • Exploring the time zones on earth and the difference in time among the different countries and continents
Learning to learn & digital competences
  • Learning in a spiral process activating and building on past experiences
  • Analyzing and synthesizing new information critically aiming to improve content knowledge and language level
  • Self –assessment of performance
  • Searching for information on the Internet
  • Extracting information from the Internet
  • Selecting the information needed
  • Compare and find similarities and differences
  • Making associations and connections
Social and civic competences
  • Cooperating with peers and discuss findings
  • Making associations and connections
  • Exchanging views about likes/dislikes
  • Synthesizing opinions, negotiating and getting to final conclusions
  • Practicing language skills exploiting the humanistic perspective
  • Helping each other to learn
Timing of the overall activities
5-6 hours
Language(s) used in these materials
English as the primary language of communication and the languages spoken by the students, as well as expressions from other languages such as: Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Slavic languages, etc.
Resources and materials needed
  • Photocopies of the Worksheets
  • Dictionaries (on line and hard copies)
  • Access to the Internet
  • Geography books
  • World map and a globe
  • Projector connected to a computer

Worksheets

1. Countries around the world

Worksheet 1
Snapshots of our earth from space
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

2. Finding information about different countries

Worksheet 1
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 2
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

3. Exploring the languages of different countries

Worksheet 1
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

4. Emails and countries

Worksheet 1
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

5. Experimenting with languages

Worksheet 1
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

6. The strait of Gibraltar

Worksheet 1
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 2: Learning what straits, isthmi/isthmuses, canals are
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 3
Exploring the languages around the Gibraltar strait
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

7. The black sea and the red sea

Worksheet 1
Learning about the location and the names of the Black sea and the Red sea in different languages
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 2
The Black sea and the countries around it
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 3
The Red Sea
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 4
“Black” and “Red” are not just colours
Material for Teachers
Material for Students

8. Time zones

Worksheet 1
Finding out about the time zones
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 2
“Good morning” and “good evening” in different languages
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 3
Learning “good morning” and “good evening” in different languages
Material for Teachers
Material for Students
Worksheet 1
Review and assessment project
Material for Teachers
Material for Students