Three creative ways
teachers can explore oceans in the classroom
A Teaching about oceans can help transforming your classroom
into a submarine; the vast expanse of
the seas can be explored in many ways. Teachers now expected to develop their students’
knowledge of globally significant places “both terrestrial and marine”.
The mystery of the deep blue sea is a great opportunity to enliven and engage
students. Oceans education isn’t the reserve of enthusiastic geography teachers
– it can inspire children in science, literacy, art and much more.
B When Ben Culverhouse, then a year 5 teacher at The Manor Church of England primary school in South Gloucestershire,
wanted to get children excited about ocean wonders he turned his classroom into
a submarine. The idea came to him after seeing the play Kursk.
Culverhouse got in touch with the show’s director who emailed him submarine digital
sound effects. “I set up a sub interior control room as my whiteboard screensaver
and used a red light bulb for silent operations such as reading,” says Culverhouse.
As the eight-week project developed, the children made models of underwater creatures,
and hung them around the classroom. “We used the submarine to ‘travel’ to a certain
point in the ocean each lesson,” says Culverhouse.
C For geography, Culverhouse explored the locations of the
oceans and continents around the world. He also gave a lesson on navigation, plotting a course using marker buoys and compass directions, to
introduce maths skills. The class even studied Robert Louis Stevenson’s seafaring
classic Treasure Island
for their literature unit in the submarine classroom.
D Leah Sharp taught the topic of oceans to her year 6 class
at Downsbrook middle school in West Sussex cooperating with a year 10 group
at Patcham high school in Brighton.
Sharp was teaching her younger pupils physical geography, while David Rogers at
Patcham was tackling various types of coastal erosion and flooding with his class.
After exchanging tweets about what their students were working on, they decided
to team up using Google hangouts. The project lasted six weeks. At the start of
every week, each side would send over new resources to be uploaded onto hangouts.
E Alan Parkinson, geography teacher at King’s
Ely in Cambridgeshire, taught oceans as
part of a year 7 unit. He introduced the “you are what you eat” project to teach
about food issues and sustainable resourcing. Students were introduced to the various
methods used to catch fish and their effect on the environment. They visualised
the impact on the sea floor, and investigated more sustainable alternatives, such
as farming fish. The children made fish and chips dishes with messages written on
them. Each fish explained why it was threatened; the chips were labelled with
ideas for helping the fish to survive. Students were asked to create an eco-friendly
menu. They linked up with the food technology department; some groups were allowed
to cook their dishes.
Adjusted
to (1)
vast – ohromný,
obrovský
plot –
zosnovat, naplánovat
marker buoy –
vytyčovací bóje
sustainable
resourcing – dlouhodobé udržování zdrojů
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Culverhouse taught geography, literature and maths
during his ocean project
2 Culverhouse turned the classroom into a submarine
3 “You are what you eat” project
4 Sharp’s and Rogers’
classes worked together
5 Teaching about oceans is inspiring
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 Why can learning about
oceans be interesting?
2 How did Culverhouse start with his project?
3 How were the topics of oceans presented creatively?
Describe all the presented ways.
4 How did two classes cooperate?
5 Why did children make fish and chips dishes?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 knowledge of globally significant places
2 great opportunity to enliven and engage students
3 exchanging tweets
4 upload onto hangouts
5 labelled with ideas
4) Answer the following questions.
What is science? How does science education influence
development of children? How is science taught at preschool, primary school and
secondary school?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)
MARSH,
Sarah. Three creative ways teachers can explore oceans in the classroom. The
Guardian [online]. 2015 [cit. 2015-09-21]. Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/may/20/explore-oceans-classroom-three-creative-ways-teachers
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