Урок-мастерская по английскому языку "My Trace on the Planet"
план-конспект урока по английскому языку (10 класс) на тему

        Гимназия № 631

 Санкт-Петербург

Урок-мастерская  

по английскому языку

в 10-11 кл.

My Trace on the Planet

Solving Ecological Problems

Учитель:  Гореликова А.П.  

Санкт-Петербург 2014

It has become a good tradition of our School for Global Education to hold annual conferences and workshops devoted to some global problems. One of our workshops was dedicated to the issue of practicing tolerance and non-violence. Now we decided to concentrate on the problem of ecological sustainability. Our choice is not accidental. As teachers of Global School, we are increasingly aware of the urgent need to prepare young people for a different kind of life-a life in which new conditions will require constructive adaptation and new problems will require creative solutions.

         Global education encourages teachers and students to take a broad view: to see themselves as global citizens as well as members of a particular community, to understand key problems afflicting the world and to play their part in finding creative solutions, to think constructively about the future, taking part in shaping it as well as learning from the past.

To meet the challenges our students need to acquire a lot of skills and abilities, which are invaluable as the top goal of our workshop is development of global and personal strategies for sustainable future. One of the most important abilities that global education can offer is the ability to perceive connections between phenomena across time and space. In many respects, our world seems to be changing for the better new technologies have improved life for many people. On the other hand, our world seems to be spinning out of control: there is global environmental degradation of life threatening proportions. Just consider the fact that humans use one third more ecological capacity than nature can regenerate. If we go on like this, one should not be a fortuneteller to predict the consequences.

Therefore, the question arises: “What is to be done to prevent ecological catastrophe and promote a sustainable future?” In order to answer this question we must be able to assess the current global situation so that the students can make more informed decisions on their own values, beliefs, and assumption about the strategies  for sustainable future both their personal and global.

We are going to do this by carrying out a very exciting activity that is exploring the concept of the ecological footprint as a means of gaining new insights into sustainability. However, before approaching this activity we are to clear out some points.

Teacher: “First of all what do you think the idea of sustainability is?”

Students give their ideas of sustainability.

Teacher: “How can you characterize the relationship between mankind and nature? Choose among four options and justify your answer.

Students choose among the options and give their grounds.

1. Man dominates Nature.
2. Nature dominates Man.
3. Man depends on Nature.
4. They coexist in balance.  
   

Ecological Footprint can measure the size of these ecological problems. Our Canadian colleagues from Centre design this activity for Global Education.   We find the opportunity to share ideas with our Canadian colleagues the most enjoyable and beneficial part of the project. We are experiencing new satisfaction every time we manage to incorporate global perspective into our teaching. Every time it is like opening a new door.

        Teacher: The Ecological Footprint measures our dependence on nature. Every nation depends on ecological capacity to sustain itself.  A nation’s Ecological Footprint corresponds to the total area of land and water that is required by that nation to continuously produce all the resources it consumes, and to absorb all the waste it generates, using existing technology.

        Students discuss the handout “Ecological Footprint of Nations and come to the conclusion that the average Ecological Footprint is 35% larger than the available space. In other words, humanity consumption exceeds what nature can regenerate on a continuous basis.

Next students read handouts the “Opinions» to discuss and assess the statements. Each statement is rated on a 1-5 scale according to how acceptable and how implementable students think it is.

Having assessed each statement, three pairs of students join together to form a group of 6.The 3 sets of ratings are reviewed and discussion takes place around any

Finally, each group writes a single statement of a few sentences in length that summarizes their collective opinions on the arguments put forward in the statements. Summery statements should reflect any disagreements that persist among group members.

Class discussion follows the sharing of summаry statements. Thus, the activity is not intended to show ‘how bad things are.’ Its aim is to provide students with the tool of making the decision about the best strategies for global future.

Discussion might also focus on those statements where the differential between the ‘acceptable’ and ‘implementable’ ratings is the highest.

At a more sophisticated level, discussion could include consideration of the implicit assumptions underlying the concepts of ‘measurements ‘and ‘management’ of nature. If intuition and experience tell us that there are global environmental problems, why do we need measurement tools for verification, and how accurate are they anyway? Why should the human species assume the role of managers of nature? If, as some scientists believe the planet is a self-regulating system, would it be better to try to reduce human interference?

Students move on to the next activity of exploring their personal Ecological Footprint, which demonstrates how choices you make can shrink or expand your footprint.By doing this activity, students find out possible ways for developing their personal strategies for sustainable future.

1. Reduce water and energy consumption and install water – and energy-efficient devices at home and at work.
2. Use alternative modes of transportation (e.g., walking, cycling and public transportation).
3. Buy fresh food that is locally produced.
4. Practice the three R’s. Reduce consumption by doing more with less. Eliminate unessential purchases and, when necessary, buy durable locally produced products with little or no packaging. Reuse items as much as possible and donate items to local charitable organizations. Recycle products. Buy products that are made with the materials that are collected in your recycling program and close the loop by Buying Recycled.

However, we cannot rely on technology alone. Even though, products and services are becoming more efficient, our growing global population is consuming increasing quantities of these products and services. Therefore, it is important that we as individuals reduce our consumption by using only what we really need.  

Handout ‘Opinions’

Ratings:

5=highly acceptable/highly implementable

4=acceptable/implementable

3=borderline between acceptable/not acceptable, implementable/not implementable

2=not acceptable/not implementable

1=very acceptable/not at all implementable

At the end of the lesson students come up with their own ideas about how they could make a difference and summarize their ideas about building up their global and personal strategies for sustainable future.