Интегрированный мультимедийный урок в 9-м классе "The Intergalactic Address of the Earth

Цели урока:

• Развивать иноязычную коммуникативную компетенцию.
• Раскрыть межпредметные связи английского языка и астрономии.

Образовательные задачи урока:

• Совершенствовать коммуникативные умения в четырех основных видах речевой деятельности.

Чтение	с полным пониманием прочитанного (изучающее чтение), понимание структурно-смысловых связей в тексте
Говорение	диалог – расспрос, диалог – обмен мнениями, монологическая речь
Аудирование	с извлечением основной информации, с извлечением необходимой информации
Письмо	заполнение формуляра, написание электронного письма

• Развивать грамматическую (повторить видовременные формы глагола) и лексическую (употреблять слова адекватно предложенному аутентичному тексту) стороны речи в коммуникативных целях.
• Познакомить учащихся со строением нашей Галактики и Солнечной системы, дать необходимые сведения о планете Земля и ее спутнике Луне.

Воспитательные задачи урока

• Воспитывать личностные качества учащихся, например, уверенность при ответе, умение находить выход из проблемной ситуации, умение отстаивать свою точку зрения.
• Стимулировать интерес учащихся к изучению английского языка и  физики.
• Формировать у учащихся осознанное понимание уникальности нашей планеты.

Развивающие задачи урока

• Развивать ИКТ-грамотность учащихся.
• Развивать эмоционально-образную сферу и творческие способности учащихся.
• Развивать умение учащихся самостоятельно конструировать знания.
• Развивать умение защищать учебные мини-проекты по заданной тематике.
• Развивать навыки коллективной деятельности.

Оборудование урока: компьютер, мультимедийный проектор, интерактивная доска (или интерактивное копи-устройство Mimio).

ХОД УРОКА

1. Introduction

Teacher: Good afternoon, students.
Students: Good afternoon, teacher.
Teacher: Take your seats, please. I’m glad to see you today. How are you?
Students: We are fine, thanks.
Teacher: Today we are going to get acquainted with the intergalactic address of our planet, using multimedia technologies.

2. Warming up activities(Students are discussing the following questions)

2.1. Teacher: Have you ever thought about the following things?

• Are we alone in the world?
• Is there any intelligent life in the boundless space of our Universe?
• Would you like to travel to another planet? Why/Why not?

2.2.Match the words with their definitions

Answers: 1c, 2a, 3f, 4d, 5g, 6b, 7e

3. Reading for detailed comprehension

Teacher: We’ve just received an e-mail. Let’s read it and decide where it is from.
(Students receive an e-mail and read it aloud, understanding what they need to do).

Dear students of the X-planet!

We are the students from planet Gloria, the Andromeda galaxy. We are searching for the planets where intelligent life exists.
We are writing you because our school works on the unique project «Intelligent life in the Universe». We create a data-base about life-existed nooks of the boundless space.
We would be grateful if you could let us know the information about your planet. Firstly, tell us about the galaxy and the system you live in. Secondly, we are interested in the peculiarities of your planet.
We would be very pleased if you could give us this information by filling in the passport of your planet.
We look forward to hearing from you.

P.S. When we store information about neighboring inhabited planets we plan to hold the intergalactic conference and would be happy to invite you to our hospitable planet.
By the way, here is a leaflet (passport) of our planet. Click up there to learn about us.

Faithfully yours,
Tuolla

(A Student from Informational and Educational Centre of Intergalactic Coalition)

4. The development of scientific outlook (Students are studying our position in the universe by doing the following exercises)

4.1. Watching and listening for gist

Teacher: By the way, do you know how our galaxy is called and why?
Students: Our galaxy is called the Milky Way because it looks white from space.
Teacher: That’s right but let’s watch and listen to Tim and Moby – our interactive guides from the UK. They will help us to learn more about our Galaxy. Be very attentive, as you are to answer some questions.

Comprehensive questions

• How many stars are there in the Milky Way?
• What is the Milky Way made up of?
• Why is it called the Milky Way and how does it look in the night sky?
• What shape is our galaxy?
• What does it consist of (speak about its structure)?
• What is there in the centre of the Milky Way?
• What is a Black hole?
• Why do the arms of the Milky Way keep rotating around its centre?
• Where is the Earth located?
• What is a galactic year?

Students are answering the questions.

4.2.Reading for lexico-grammatical structure

Teacher: Do you know what our star is?
Students: Our star is the Sun.
Teacher: Correct! Let’s learn more information about it. For that we should complete the text with the right parts of the sentences. Put the parts A-G into the right place of the text. One part is odd.

The Sun

The Sun is a yellow dwarf star, ___ (1). It is believed to be about 5 billion years old. The Sun spins slowly on its axis ____ (2). The center, or core, of the Sun is very hot. A process called «nuclear fusion» takes place there. Nuclear fusion produces a lot of energy. Some of this energy travels out into space ____ (3). Some of it arrives at the Earth! Streams of gas particles known ____ (4). On the Sun's surface, we can see storms. We call these storms «sunspots» ____ (5). The Sun also produces big explosions of energy called solar flares. These flares shoot fast ____ (6). These particles can hit the Earth's atmosphere and cause a glow called an Aurora.

A as the solar wind also flow out from the Sun
B moving particles off the Sun's surface
C which means it is a medium size star
D because they look like dark spots on the Sun's surface
E as heat and light
F as it rotates around the galaxy
G which cannot produce energy

Answers: 1C, 2F, 3E, 4A, 5D, 6B

4.3.Listening for specific information (gap-filling)

Teacher: Students, listen to the funny song about the Sun and fill in the gaps with the necessary words.

The missing parts are highlighted.

Our star, the Sun is a big ball of gas
And it's 99 percent of our solar system's mass
It's an average star in our Milky Way
Warmingthe Earth every day 
What powers our Sun and makes it so bright?
Come on and tell me, what makes all that light?
Hans Bethe long ago reached the conclusion
It changes Hydrogen to Helium by nuclear fusion
When fusion takes place light is created
And it makes its way out (although rather belated)
Through the Photosphere that's the part that we see
The light comes out and shines on you and me
About a million Earths could fit in the Sun
But if you were there you wouldn't have much fun
It's six thousand degrees at the photosphere
And much hotter inside the solar atmosphere

4.4. Educating game: names and the position of the planets

Teacher: Now let’s study how the planets in our Solar system are pronounced in English and learn their positions. For that we should play an interactive game.

4.5. An inquiry dialogue

Teacher: Now we are going to ask our Earth about its peculiarities. Use the scheme to cope with this assignment.

Students’ suggested answers.

A dialogue with the Earth

– What is your name?
– My name is the Earth.
– Do you have any nicknames?
– Yes, I do. People, who live on me, call me the Blue Planet.
– Why are you called so?
– Because I look blue from space, as 70 %, nearly three quarters, is covered with water. There exist four large pools, called oceans on my surface.
– Do they have any names?
– Yes, they do. People gave names such as the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic oceans.
– How much do you weigh?
– I’m slim in my Solar System. I weigh 597 thousand million, million, million tons.
– How old are you?
– Don’t you know? I’m already 4,600 million years.
– Where do you live in space?
– My house is situated in the Universe, the Milky Way (it’s my country galaxy), the Solar System (my district system). I’m the third from the Sun.
– Do you enjoy having this position?
– Yes, it’s very comfortable, not very cold and not very hot.
– Thus, you can create different things, can’t you?
– Yes, you are absolutely right. I’m capable of planting, hunting, and fishing. And all these are given for my lovely people.
– Do you live in peace with them?
– Mostly, yes. But sometimes they disappoint me. They create bombs and nuclear weapons that hurt me. Sometimes they take care of me. For instance, they develop recycling projects to make me clean.
– What do you do for them?
– I do my best to make them happy by giving them air to breathe, water to live and riddles to guess.

4.6. Monological speech (student’s short project on the Earth)

The third planet from the Sun is our home: the Earth. Our planet is special in two ways: it’s the only planet in our solar system known to support life, and it’s the only planet where water exists in liquid form. Seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface is covered with water, which can be found in many forms, such as clouds and ice. Earth’s atmosphere contains 21 % oxygen, 78 % nitrogen, and small amounts of other gases. The oxygen in our atmosphere allows us to breathe and supports life on the planet. Most of the oxygen comes from the process called photosynthesis. The atmosphere also creates a greenhouse effect that warms the Earth to an average temperature of 35 degrees °C. Without this greenhouse effect our oceans would freeze. Harmful solar radiation created by the Sun is also absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere. The Earth rotates on its axis a 23,5 degree angle. This tilt makes the seasons possible; without it the temperature around the planet would be the same. The Earth is an active planet; the surface is constantly changing from winds, water, earthquakes, volcanoes, and even our Moon. The Moon’s gravitational force affects the Earth’s large oceans, causing low and high tides.

Teacher: Now let’s do the quiz that SUDENT has prepared for you. We’ll see how attentive you’ve been.

1. What’s the number of our planet from the Sun?

A) second
B) third
C) fourth

2. What are the peculiarities of the Earth?

existence of:  

A) intelligent life
B) water
C) intelligent life and water

3. What main gases does our atmosphere contain?

A) hydrogen and oxygen
B) nitrogen and hydrogen
C) nitrogen and oxygen

4. What effect would our oceans freeze without?

A) greenhouse
B) gravitational force
C) aurora

5. What is an angle of the Earth’s rotation?

A) 32,5
B) 22,5
C) 23,5

6. What causes the constant changes of the Earth’s surface?

A) winds and water
B) earthquakes and volcanoes
C) winds, water, earthquakes, volcanoes, Moon

7. What causes low and high tides on the Earth?

A) Moon’s electromagnetic forces
B) Moon’s gravitational forces
C) Sun’s nuclear forces

Answers: 1B, 2C, 3C, 4A, 5C, 6C, 7B

4.7.Grammar: revision of tenses

Teacher: We’ll do an interesting assignment concerning our Moon. To cope with it you should revise the formation of tenses.

Answers: travels, have walked, reflects, are created, to breathe, has been discovered, is buried, be left, went, formed

4.8.Reading for detailed comprehension

Teacher: Let’s dream about stepping on the Moon once again. Match the parts of the sentences

Answers: 1F, 2D, 3A, 4E, 5B, 6C

4.9. Use of English

Teacher: What do you think about the following subject: «Are we able to live on another planet?» In the exercise you need to choose the right word using the given table.
Centuries ago people dreamed about travelling through space and science fiction writers _____ (1) that people would fly to the Moon or to Mars just for a weekend. It still seems _____ (2) but the era of space tourism has already started. A rocket «Soyuz» with the first space tourist on board ______ (3) in 2001. Dennis Tito, a sixty-year-old American businessman, stayed on the International Space Station for eight days and then ______ (4) returned to the Earth. Since that time other people have had «a space holiday» and space travel seems to have become a new ______ (5) industry. Space tourism companies plan to construct orbital hotels for short-term tourists and are thinking about ______ (6) space colonies where people can live for years. The colonies can be arranged either on space stations or on other planets. However, scientists haven't ________ (7) yet whether there is a planet where conditions would _____ (8) the conditions on the Earth.

Answers: 1 predicted, 2 unbelievable, 3 was launched, 4 safely, 5 developing, 6 arranging, 7 found out, 8 resemble

4.10. Opinion dialogue

Teacher: Fancy that we take a trip to space. Do you remember that Glorians have invited us to visit their planet? It’s surely to be impossible. Nevertheless let’s use our imagination and think what we need to take in a spaceship. Compose the dialogue, using the scheme.

4.11. Writing: filling in the leaflet and composing an informal e-mail

Teacher: Now we’ve got all necessary information for completing the passport of our Earth and sending it to Tuolla and the Glorians. (Students fill in the leaflet according to the following positions)

Leaflet (passport of the Earth)

Suggested answers for the leaflet (passport of the Earth).

Teacher: OK. Now let’s write and send an e-mail of response to Tuolla. Don’t forget how to write an informal e-mail! Use the plan.

Suggested answers for the informal e-mail.

4.12. Practicing pronunciation by singing the song «To the stars»

Teacher: Now we are going to sing the song «To the stars». It’s about a trip to space. First of all listen to it and then repeat. Let’s sing together!

5. Making conclusions

Teacher: Are we alone in space? Does intelligent life exist anywhere in the boundless space of the Universe? Will we make contacts with intelligent inhabitants of other planets or even visit them? These complicated questions demand further scientific research and technological development. But an idea of intergalactic cooperation seems rather sound. Studying this possibility we’ve learnt our intergalactic address and a lot of interesting information about our Home. Maybe in the nearest future this address will help us to communicate with other intelligent worlds.

Интернет-ресурсы:

1. http://learning.9151394.ru/course/view.php?id=2097 (веб-сайт курса «The Wonders of our World»).
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/playspace/games/jigsaw/jigsaw.shtml (интерактивная образовательная игра «Солнечная система»)
3. http://www.brainpop.com/ (веб-сайт образовательного проекта «BrainPOP»).