Цели урока: способствовать формированию целостного представления о мире, об общих проблемах, стоящих перед человечеством в XXI веке; систематизировать и обобщить у учащихся знания по данной теме.
Задачи урока:
- Образовательные: формирование лексико-грамматических навыков, развитие навыков устной монологической и диалогической речи и навыков чтения , повторение уже полученных сведений на уроке биологии на английском языке, изучив английскую терминологию.
- Развивающие: развитие познавательных интересов учащихся через нестандартные формы подачи материала; развитие умений установления причинно-следственных связей и способности выражения своего отношения к теме; развитие способности к догадке по словообразовательным элементам и по дефиниции; развитие внимания, образного мышления и коммуникабельности .
- Воспитательные: формирование уважительного и ответственного отношения к природе; формирование способности осознавать угрозу экологии и стремления решать экологические проблемы; формирование потребности в коллективной работе и ответственности за самостоятельную работу.
Тип урока: интегрированный, смешанный (закрепление знаний по теме, введение новых знаний, круглый стол)
Оснащение урока: наглядный материал: карточки с активной лексикой, распечатки с заданием, фотографии, диаграммы, карта микрорайона, план-проект развлекательного центра.
Материалы учебных пособий:
1.Э.А.Гейвандов ”Экология” Словарь-справочник
для школьников и студентов
2.Leo Jones “New Progress to First Certificate”
3.Fiona Scott-Barrett “First Certificate –Listening and Speaking”
4.”Ecosystem”- www.wikipedia.com
Предварительная подготовка:
- Деление учащихся на группы для выполнения домашнего задания.
- Проведение учащимися опроса школьников об экологических проблемах их района Москва и о том, как они проводят свой досуг.
- Задание найти законодательные акты о вырубке леса.
- Подготовка презентации проекта юношеского развлекательного центра.
Ход урока
Организационный момент.
Teacher: You have got acquainted with the term “ecosystem” at your Biology lessons. You must know how ecosystems function. At our previous lesson you learnt how to speak about the elements of ecosystem in English. Today we are going to revise this material and try to extend our knowledge of the conditions under which ecosystem lives and develops. We'll speak about ecosystem in general , then take some particular cases , and finally, speak about urban ecosystem, because Moscow is its vivid example.
I.Актуализация знаний
.1)Teacher: For your home work you had to read the text about ecosystem dynamics and answer the questions on the text.
The students answer the questions on the text they read at home.
The study of ecosystems
Ecosystem dynamics
An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical (abiotic) factors of the environment. These physical and biological components of an environment are considered in relation to each other as a unit. The term ecosystem was coined in 1930 by Roy Clapham. British ecologist Arthur Tansley later introduced some new terms, describing ecosystem as the interactive system established between biocoenosis (a group of living creatures) and their biotope (the environment in which they live).
Introduction of new elements (biotic or abiotic) into an ecosystem tends to have a disruptive effect. In some cases it can lead to ecological collapse and the death of many species belonging to the ecosystem. The ecological health means the robustness and recovery capacity for an ecosystem, how far the ecosystem is away from its steady state.
Ecosystem is governed by stochastic (chance) events, the reaction they provoke on non-living materials and the responses by organisms to the conditions surrounding them. Thus, ecosystem results from the sum of myriad individual responses of organisms to influence of non-living and living elements in the environment. The presence or absence of populations merely depends on reproductive and dispersal success, and population levels change in response to stochastic events. Since the beginning of life, organisms have survived continuous change through natural selection of successful feeding and reproductive and dispersal behavior. Through natural selection the planet’s species have continuously adapted to change through variation in their biological composition and distribution. Ecosystems are given the great diversity among organisms on earth and change very gradually, as some species would disappear while others would move in.
If ecosystems are indeed governed by stochastic processes, they may be somewhat more resilient to sudden change, as each species would respond individually. In the absence of a balance of nature, the species composition of ecosystems would undergo shifts that would depend on the nature of the change, but entire ecological collapse would probably be less frequently occurring events.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
In 2005, the largest ever assessment of the earth’s ecosystems was conducted by a research team of over 1,000 scientists. The findings of the assessment were published in the multi volume Millennium Ecosystems Assessment, which concluded that in the past 50 years humans have altered the earth’s ecosystems more than any other time in our history.
- What is an ecosystem?
- What new terms were introduced by A. Tansley?
- What do we mean when we call an ecosystem healthy?
- What influences the stability of ecosystems?
- How could the planet’s species adapt to changes since the beginning of life?
- Are ecological systems always the same?
- What can cause ecological collapse?
- What was the conclusion of the Millennium Assessment?
2)Teacher: And now I want to check how you have managed to memorize the words from the text. Match the words in the box with their definitions.
The students do the following exercises to practise their knowledge of the new words.
Disruptive effect, ecological collapse, robustness, recovery capacity, to provoke on, to undergo shifts, dispersal, stochastic, resilient, diversity, natural selection, assessment
- ___________to cause a reaction/response (mostly negative one);
- __________ the fact that very different people or things exist within a group;
- ___________ to experience a change in something (often negative);
- ___________thinking something over and making a judgment;
- ___________causing difficulties or preventing something from continuing:
- ___________ a situation in which something fails or stops existing:
- ___________the ability of becoming healthy or healthy again;
- ___________being strong and unlikely to break;
- ___________able to quickly become strong and healthy again;
- __________such events happen by chance.
- __________the process of spreading something in different directions over a wide area;
- __________process according to which only the strongest species survive.
Teacher: Complete the sentences below with the words from the text.
- It's amazing how animals can …………to changes in their living conditions.
- A natural unit of all living and non-living factors of the environment is called …………..
- Chance events that govern ecosystem are called ………..
- According to A. Tansley , ………..is a group of living creatures.
- When ecosystem is healthy it is robust and in ………..state.
- In the past 50 years humans have ………. the earth's ecosystems more than any other time in our history.
3)The teacher asks two students to come up to the blackboard and gives each of them some flashcards with active words - the task is to divide them into two categories “healthy ecosystem” and “unhealthy ecosystem” and stick them up on the board with magnets.
The words on the flashcards: disruptive effect, resilient, poisoned, recovery capacity, robustness, ecological collapse, to adapt, shortage, steady state, reproductive success, pollution, to undergo shifts, diversity, to provoke on.
4)Teacher: What examples of ecosystems can you give? (The teacher shows the photographs of different ecosystems).
The students guess what ecosystems are shown on the photos.
Examples of ecosystem include:
| - Desert | - Large marine ecosystem | - Subsurface microbal ecosystem |
| - Coral reef | - Taiga | - Lake or River ecosystem |
| - Rainforest | - Tundra | - Urban ecosystem |
| - Human ecosystem | - Savanna |
II. Введение новых знаний.
Teacher: What ecosystems do we call human ecosystems? Why can practically all types of ecosystems be regarded as human ones?
Student 1: All the places where people live can be called human ecosystems.
Student 2: All types of ecosystems can be connected with human ones because people have already discovered the whole planet.
Teacher: Right you are. Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms are continually engaged in a set of relationships with every other element of the environment in which they exist. Ecosystems can describe any situation where there is a relationship between organisms and their environment. A system as small as a household or university, or as large as a nation state, may be discussed as a human ecosystem. Ecosystems do not exist independently, but interact in a complex web of human and ecological relationships connecting all (human) ecosystems to make up the biosphere. As virtually no surface of the earth today is free of human contact, all ecosystems can be more accurately considered as human ecosystems.
Student: What do we call the ecosystem we live in- our home, our school or our city?
Teacher: We all live in the urban ecosystem which has its special features. Read the text about urban ecosystems and do the tasks on the text: 1) find the words in the text having the following meaning in Russian; 2) answer the questions.
Urban ecosystems
Urban ecosystems are cities, towns and urban settlements constructed by humans. Growth of urban population and building supporting infrastructure have great impact on both urban environment and the areas surrounding cities and towns. The latter can include semi-environments that fringe cities as well as agricultural and natural landscapes.
Scientists are now developing ways of measurement to understand the effects of urbanization on human and environmental health.
Urban areas are considered as a part of a broader ecological system and scientists can investigate how urban landscapes function and how they affect other landscapes which they interact with. Urban environment is affected by surrounding one but also impacts on that environment. Knowing this may provide clues to which alternative development options will lead to the best final environmental outcome.
Urban ecosystem research is focused on: understanding how cities work as ecological system; developing approaches to development of city fringe areas that reduce negative impact on surrounding environments; developing approaches to urban design that provide for health and opportunities for citizens; developing new technologies and providing integrated infrastructure solutions to reduce urban ecological footprints and increase infrastructure effectiveness; exploring the opportunities and risks of possible development pathways.
Teacher: Find the words or groups of words having the following meaning in Russian.
a) оказывать воздействие;
b) вклиниваться;
c) вырабатывать подход ;
d) нанести удар;
e) обеспечить здоровье;
f) взаимодействовать;
g) конечный результат;
h) пути развития.
Teacher: Read the text again and answer the following questions.
- What types of urban ecosystems can you name?
- What has great impact on the urban environment?
- What kind of relationship does urban ecosystem have with surrounding environments?
- What aspects does the urban ecosystem research include?
- What can reduce negative impact on the city environment?
Students fulfill the tasks.
III
.Активизация знаний: Round table - Environmental problems of MoscowTeacher: And now let us all pretend that we are the participants of a very important meeting – the Round Table on the environmental problems of our urban ecosystem – Moscow – and our district Troparyovo-Nikulino, in particular.
At the previous lesson I divided you into 3 groups with special tasks : 1) members of the local environmental protection group (the greens), 2) businessmen and 3) independent experts on ecology.
The task of the greens was to interview different people and find out what environmental problems are the most urgent ones for our district.
The task of the group of businessmen was to make up a project of an entertainment centre for teenagers in Troparyovsky Park.
The task of the group of independent experts was to find arguments for and against such a project.
At the end of this discussion we will make a decision either to allow or to ban the construction of that Entertainment Centre for Teenagers.
Let us listen to the first group of the participants.
a)The students of the first group speak about ecological problems of Moscow and their district:
Student 1: The problem of air pollution in the city can be solved if it is given the right level of commitment. I do believe that this problem can be dealt with on three levels: internationally, nationally and last but not least, on a personal level.
Student 2: The number of vehicles on our roads is set to double over the next few years – it will cause the traffic collapse in Moscow. The average speed of traffic in central Moscow is the same as in the era of the horse and cart of 100 years ago.
Student 3: Lead in petrol has been shown to cause brain damage in young children.
Just consider the awful impact that the car has had on modern life. Lives in many big cities have become miserable because of congestion (traffic jams), noise and pollution from motor vehicles. Practically all yards have turned into parking places.
Student 4: The destruction of wildlife has become so common as to cease to be horrific.
The citizens of Moscow have been moving to the genetic catastrophe for the last two decades.
These are things that can cause mutation factors:
- Biochemical poisoning of food and water;
- Air pollution;
- Electromagnetic pollution of the environment;
- Noise and vibration effects.
These harmful effects are steadily increasing and doctors connect the growth of death-rate from cancer with these effects.
b)The students of the second group: Presentation of the project of the Entertainment Centre for teenagers.
Teacher: But there are not only environmental problems in our urban ecosystem. Let us give word to our guests –a group of young businessmen who have come to present their project.
Some pupils present the project of the Entertainment Centre..
Teacher: There are also some social problems in our district that can be solved partly by constructing the Entertainment Centre .
One of the pupils speaks about social problems of teenagers in support of the Centre.
c)Teacher: Let’s hear the opinion of our group of independent experts (some pupils did some investigation beforehand):
Student 1: In comparison with other cities Moscow is a rather green city with a lot of parks, gardens , squares and forest zones that are the favourite place of our citizens’ recreation and doing sports. In 1962 the Moscow council made a decision to create special recreation zones in all districts of the city. Troparyovsky Park is one of such zones.
Student 2: We live in the capital of Russia. Moscow is a giant city with a pack of environmental problems which have been already mentioned. Some of the big issues are also:
- technogenic pressure on the geological environment of the city, on its landscape;
- changes in the landscape of Moscow cause the loss of landscape stability;
- degradation of parks and forests connected with enormous visiting of recreation zones by citizens;
- dumping of rubbish around the city;
- thermal pollution, etc.
Student 3: The construction of the entertainment center for teenagers will only add to these problems. And one more thing: what does the law say in this regard?
Student 4: Clause 21 of the Constitution says that cutting down trees is allowed in parks and forest zones only in case of:
- Doing geological research of mineral wealth;
- Exploration of mineral deposits;
- Construction of hydrotechnical objects;
- Construction of electrotransmission lines, roads, communication lines and pipeline
So we can see that the law doesn’t allow to build anything in the park.
d)Teacher: And now , when you have heard different opinions on the matter, let us discuss the problem.
Students: Then follows the discussion of pros and cons of the project presented when all the student give their reasons for and against the entertainment centre in Troparyovsky Park taking into account the chance of making its ecosystem “unhealthy”.
Finally, the student come to a conclusion that it is necessary to find another place for the entertainment centre for teenagers because its construction in Troparyovsky park may impact its ecosystem.
Домашнее задание: Write an essay “for” and “against” the project of constructing the Entertainment Centre in the park using the active words of the lesson.
Примечание. Материал данного урока может быть использован для проведения двух отдельных уроков по теме.