Addressing the learning of subjects such as
geography with a non-traditional methodology allows us to change what most of the students think about it, that is to say, a subject
where the only thing that is expected of them is to learn long lists of
geographical features or more or less
interesting data and where there is no room
for research ,solving problems, creativity , etc. So the aim of this work is to change this
cliché.
The use
of this methodology let us turn students into subjects of their own
teaching-learning process, taking part in an active way, not only with the contents but also when the students
explain them to their classmates. On the other hand, it helps us to foster
critical attitudes of the problems and challenges that arise from man and his environment
interaction, such as environmental
problems or climate changes.
This activity
was carried out with ESO 1ºD, a group
that is part of the Aula XXI program in which the students work with a digital
device (iPad), so the use of ICT has been essential in our work.
As a
previous step, the teacher created a folder in Drive, shared with all the
students. This one was divided into subfolders with the instructions to develop
the corresponding work to each stage and once performed, they had to upload the finished task. The students were
divided into 5 groups, with a student coordinator chosen by the teacher and
spokesperson students, chosen by the members of each group.
The work
was divided into three stages, for each one,
students got four sessions.
Stage I:
To explain the Characteristics of Climates and their Classification
Ø
work to be done
a) First, to explain the general
characteristics (elements and factors) of climates and rank them, then to
analyse the influence of human activities on them. To do this, they had to do a
research to get information from the textbook (Vicens Vives), and if they needed
to expand some contents they could
browse the web.
b) To carry out the work students had to reach agreements on:
Ø The work presentation form: all the students in a
group make the same task. After
that, they had a brainstorming session to
decide the general presentation.
Ø Choice of applications that had
previously been worked with in class: padlet, picnnic, Keynote, power point,
mindly and Ispiration.
c) Once finished, we dedicated the last class to
the presentation of each work. Besides, the spokesman in each group had to
explain it to the rest of his classmates
and the reasons why they had chosen the application they had used.
Work example: Climate Elements
This work
has been made with pinnic by Aisha Mehnane Lorenzo
Step II: To study Extreme Climates: Cold and Warm
Work
to be done
At this step the students worked on extreme
climates .Each group was assigned a different type of climate.
The kind of
tasks that students had to complete were
different from those of the previous stage. In the corresponding subfolder
(drive) they had the needed information, according to the following task sheet:
·
To
outline the different characteristics.
·
Climate-graph
(make a graph in the application Numbers) and calculation of the average temperature
and the annual rainfalls.
·
Climate-graph
commentary
·
Explanation
of the characteristics of flora and fauna
·
Study
of the impact that human activities have on the climate.
b) To carry out the work, the
students assign the tasks to the members of the group (the coordinator of the
group had to report about the distribution of tasks to the teacher). Once the
individual works were finished, each group made a pooling and finally , they
gathered the work in a slide show.
1. Tropical
weather videos
Then we did an mid-term evaluation in which the students were asked about the dynamics of work. They made a possitive assessment, only two students proposed to change the groupings.
Stage III: Study
the temperate climates.
·
work to be done
a)
In
this stage, students had to study the warm climates, and as in the previous step, each group was
assigned a type of climate.
Here, the way of working was the
same as in the previous step but this time, they had to collect the information
by themselves and they could not do the same task as in stage II.
b)
The
dynamics of the work was the same: the students assign the tasks to the members
of the group (the coordinator of the group had to report the teacher about the distribution of tasks).
Once the individual works were finished, each group made a pooling and finally
, they gathered the work in a slide show.
c)
The last session was dedicated to the
presentation of works to the rest of
classmates.
Example:
Mediterranean climate video
Finally ,an individual evaluation, in
which pupils were asked about how they had felt while doing the tasks and
if this new methodology had favoured their learning, was carried out. The results of this
evaluation were mostly positive thus acknowledging , that learning had been much
easier and fun.
The teacher could verify, as well,
that pupils had been more receptive to instructions,
improved their personal motivation, the ability to learn autonomously and their
educational achievements.
Dª Josefa Gracia Balsalobre
Social Sciences 1st ESO
IES Francisco Salzillo
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario