Aims:
- to develop students` habits in listening, reading, speaking;
- to enlarge the students` outlook, to enrich their word stocks; to improve students` skills in expressing their own ideas, opinions;
- to bring up and develop love of nature and readiness to protect the environment.
Materials: cards, slogans, pictures, computer.
Procedure of the lesson: Introduction.
Good morning, dear students and guests. Glad to see you!
I want you to guess what we are going to speak about today. To find out the theme of the lesson, let` s solve this crossword.
I Warm up
- We are surrounded by plants and animals. So, what is around us? (Nature)
- What harmful rain do you know? (Acid)
- What do we get as a result of burning fuel in cars and lorries? (Smoke)
- Polluted air is bad for people, animals and… (plants)
- Dirty air is called … (smog)
- People throw away a lot of … (garbage)
- We don’t want to be ill. We want to be … (healthy)
So, the theme of our lesson is ecology. 4 min
Make up the cluster on the blackboard. T > S, S, S
T: What is ecology?
S 1: Ecology is a science about nature and relations of men and the natural world.
T: When the Man destroys the environment, how can we call the Man/
S 2: Man the destroyer.
T: What are destructive activities of people and kinds of pollution?
S 3: Air pollution, water pollution, nuclear pollution, littering.
T: That means destruction of natural resources. How do destructive activities of people influence animal and plant world?
S 4: We have extinct and disappearing species of animals and plants.
(T. makes up the cluster.).
3 min
Listen, write and discuss
T: Let’s start with the problem of disappearing species of animals. Listen to the text and fill in the blanks, please. Then be ready to answer the questions:
Why are African elephants and Indian tigers disappearing nowadays? What is the result? (Students work on the computer.)
Will you put on your ear-phones, please?
Many animals and birds on the Earth are --- nowadays. Many of them are in danger. Indian --- and African elephants are among them. People have --- and killed many tigers in India and a lot of elephants in Africa. Why?
Tigers and elephants are often --- animals. Tigers can kill cows, sheep, other --- animals, and sometimes they can also kill men. Some people are ---- tigers and kill them to --- their domestic animals and their lives. But some people have often hunted tigers for --- and for their beautiful ---. They can easily --- the skin and --- a lot of money as the --- are high.
The result is very ---. There are --- Indian tigers on the Earth now. Many of them are usually old, --- animals. Most tigers don’t hunt people nowadays, but --- from them in deep, dark forests, or they rather hid there earlier, because there aren’t many forests for tigers ---. People have ---down many trees. And the question is: “Have those animals got a ---?
(disappearing, tigers, hunted, dangerous, domestic, afraid of, save, fun, skin, sell, get, prices, sad, few, sick, hide, nowadays, cut, future)
T: I want to demonstrate you this slogan: 1 fur coat can be made from 50 dead animals. 5min
Present mini-projects.
T: You are welcome with your projects about some extinct and disappearing animals and birds pointed in the Red Book.
(Students present their mini- projects, using multi-media blackboard.) 8 min
Work in groups
T: Here are some environmental problems: water pollution, ozone holes, disposing of the garbage.
(T. puts titles on three desks.) Take cards with words and phrases, please. Match these words on your cards and the titles on the desks and choose the group you’ll work in. (T. switches on the music. All students stand up, take cards and join the group according to the words on their cards.)
Words on the topics:
- Water pollution:
- oceans, seas, rivers, lakes
- fish, seabirds, sea-animals, shellfish
- it is not drinkable
- tons of oil are dumped there every year
- dirty water
- Ozone holes:
- aerosol sprays
- ultraviolet radiation
- skin cancer
- space flights
- direct sunlight can be dangerous
- Disposing of the garbage:
- reduce
- reuse
- recycle
- save
Tasks of the groups:
- Read the text; explain, match the words; complete the sentences; answer the questions.
- Discuss your problem in a role play “A journalist interviews a factory manager, a doctor and some experts”.
Water pollution (the text for group 1)
Water is necessary for life on the Earth. It is in oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. But very little water on the Earth is good for drinking because it is dirty. Some factories and companies dump chemical wastes, millions of tons of oil into the sea every year. We can only imagine how many seabirds and animals, fish, shellfish die in such water.
The Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, Lake Baikal and other water-bodies are in danger now. It is dangerous to walk barefoot on the banks of our river Ishim and to swim in our lakes because there is a lot of garbage, broken glass, and plastic, tins, and bottles, thrown everywhere. Some people wash their cars, bicycles in our rivers and lakes,
The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world. The former sea bed is now a salt desert. It was a home to 24 species of fish. As the result of the shrinkage of the Sea a lot of fishermen lost their jobs. The dying Aral Sea has changed the climate of the region .A lot of people suffer from different diseases
Read the text and explain words in English:
- necessary
- dirty
- dump
- wastes
- imagine
- dangerous
- barefoot
- shrinkage
Fill in the blanks
- Water is--- for life on the Earth.
- Some plants and companies---into the water.
- A lot of fish ---in dirty and polluted water.
- 24 species of fish disappeared because of ---- of the Aral Sea.
- The Aral Sea was --- largest sea in the world.
- You can hurt yourself when you walk --- on the banks of our rivers.
Prepare the interview
Ozone holes (the second group)
In the atmosphere there is the ozone layer. It protects the Earth from the ultraviolet rays of the sun, like a kind of a roof. But the ozone layer is destroyed by aerosol sprays, space flights. So the dangerous rays get through the atmosphere, causing skin cancer and other diseases. We must stop using sprays right now.
To make air clean we need good filters at nuclear power stations, at factories and plants and also in cars and buses.
Many territories and our atmosphere are polluted with different kinds of technological, chemical, nuclear wastes. The intensive development of sciences, industry and chemistry nowadays has made the pollution of our environment a global problem which should be solved by all means.
Deforestation can also add greenhouse’s gas in the air. When the trees are cut down, the forest becomes a desert. The homes of millions of animals and plants are destroyed, too.
If only people took care of the environment and one another, they would never need any medical aid.
Word-matching
| 1) global | a) ruin |
| 2) different | b) decide |
| 3) aid | c) illness |
| 4) destroy | d) universal |
| 5) disease | e) help |
| 6) solve | f) various |
Answer the questions and match them as the titles with the correct paragraph.
- What can make air clean?
- How is the ozone layer destroyed?
- Why are the habitats of many animals and plants destroyed?
- Why must technology bring apology to ecology?
Act out the interview
Disposing of the garbage (the third group)
Disposing the garbage we produce every day is a major problem. Finding land for new landfills is becoming more difficult nowadays. But there are 3 R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle. Energy, water, glass bottles, newspapers, plastic, cans, tins can be reduced, reused and recycled.
In some families kitchen and garden trash is easily burnt. The old furniture, clothing and other useful things are cleaned, repaired or given away to people who need them. Some people can make wonderful vases of plastic bottles, cans and painted paper. It helps to save energy, money and to protect the environment and our precious natural resources. We should build factories for utilizing solid wastes.
Everything is connected in the world and we can save the planet from the ecological crisis only acting all together.
Explain words in English
- dispose
- garbage
- recycle
- major
- reduce
- trash
- burn
Complete the sentences using the right word.
- Environmental protection is a --- problem.
A) easy B) major C) pleasant - Old newspapers, empty glass bottles, plastic can be ---.
A) protected B) recycled C) filled - --- of the garbage saves energy and mineral resources.
A) Using B) Disposing C) Throwing - Kitchen and garden --- can be burnt.
A) equipment B) furniture C) trash
Participate in the role play. (Work in groups takes 15 min.)
Make comments on the film.
T: Our health is closely connected with the ecological state of our region. Will you see the extract of the film about the action “Clean banks for the river Ishim” which our ecological department organized not long ago.
After the film students change opinions. 6 min
Interview
What do you usually do to help the nature? What is your personal contribution?
Interview of students. 2 min
Find out a person, who often does his (her) best to…
| plant trees | reuse plastic bottles |
| take care of birds | reuse paper |
| look after stray animals | recycle glass |
| make bird-houses | clean streets |
| plant and water flowers | keep our town and yards clean |
| feed birds during a severe winter | recycle newspapers |
| save water, energy, gas | take care of plants in the school yard |
Assessment of students: give marks.
Homework:
Write down an essay “Keeping the Earth clean.” 2 min
We all live on the tiny fragile planet. Our life and health are closely connected with the environment. I think, such lessons teach my students to understand and protect nature.
Besides, during this lesson some elements of some technologies are used, such as interview, brainstorming, and interactivity. Students show their skills in working with the computer, video, and language laboratory.