CLIL Geology & English

CLIL DIDACTIC UNIT: THE SOLAR SYSTEM OLGA IURTSEVA

The Solar System is a didactic unit created for the students of 4th of ESO. It consists of five 50-minutes sessions and is recommended to be taught in groups of 25 students.

This didactic unit teaches the main concepts of the Solar System, introduces topicrelated vocabulary and offers collaborative and individual activities aimed at practicing four language skills: speaking, writing, reading and listening.

Subject: Geology/English The Solar System  Learn the Big Bang Theory  Identify and understand the main stages of the Big Bang  Learn about the planets and their main characteristics  Learn about the origin of Earth and its layers Contents of the  The Big Bang Theory subject  The planets  Earth Vocabulary: Language contents Verbs, nouns and adjectives: Quark, matter, particle, gravity, to stretch, to decrease, explosion, expansion, superheat, to bounce off, to latch, absorption, transparent, clump, dense, ignite, to estimate, core Planets: Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune Earth-related specific vocabulary: Crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, inner core Grammar: identify and use grammatical constructions to describe the Solar System Past and present tenses: Past Simple (universe started), Present Simple (universe continues to expand), Present Perfect (have discovered) Passive voice (was formed) Comparatives, superlatives (the coldest planet, hotter than) Reading: a wide range of authentic and adapted texts (for gist Languages skills and for specific information) Listening: Youtube videos explaining concepts taught at the lessons (for gist and for specific information) Writing: individual and collaborative creative writing activities Speaking: pair and group discussions, presentations Activities Reading and listening: activities for general understanding, true/false questions, gap-fill activities, matching exercises Writing: creation of a ppt presentation, voicethread Speaking: oral presentation, participation in group discussions Webquest activity, ESL video, online vocabulary exercises Evaluation Evaluation will be formative, summative, cumulative and continuous. The students’ attitude, attention, willingness to participate, respect for the teacher and classmates also will be taken into consideration. The main assessment tools will be: observation, portfolio, formal oral and written tests. Several evaluation criteria will be used: the acquisition of content - 40% of the grade; individual and group projects, presentations will be given 30%. Positive attitudes, paying attention in class, punctuality 30% as well.

Objectives

The unit is designed for three core sessions, during which student will acquire the content and develop the language skills according to the main objectives of the unit. Two optional sessions (project) are also recommended to be implemented and are aimed at the development of communicative skills, problem-solving capacity and teamwork skills. The first three sessions should be taught by the Department of Geography, while the last two may be implemented in the English classroom, as they are more language-centered.

Session 1: At the beginning of the session students will be asked to reflect on some general questions about the Solar System, they might already possess some knowledge of the topic, so the discussion might be organized as a short warm-up activity. Further on, they will be shown a video about the origin of the Solar System explained by the Big Bang Theory. Students will be asked to watch the video and check their guesses from the previous exercise. After, they will watch the video again and work with the vocabulary introduced by the video, matching the new words to their definitions. At the next stage of the lesson students will do a reading activity going deeper in the processes of the Solar System creation. The reading activity contains two follow-up tasks. After reading and doing the exercises, students will be asked to recall the main stages themselves and describe them with their own words.

Session 2: During the second session the students will be introduced to the planets of the Solar System. First, they will work with the video, explaining some general facts about the planets. The video also contains true/false activity to check the understanding of more specific information. Afterwards, students will read a more detailed description of each planet and asked to match the planet with its picture, basing on the texts and the video they saw at the beginning of the lesson. After reading activities, students will be offered a wordsearch and an online matching activity (which also may be assigned as homework). The last task of the session is a topic-related speaking activity: the students will be asked to discuss the offered questions in pairs or small groups.

Session 3: This session presents Earth’s layers and deepens students’ knowledge of the planet. First, students will be asked to imagine what Earth looked like 4 billion years ago, maybe draw a picture. After they will be shown a video and asked to check their ideas. It is an ESL video, so it contains some multiple-choice questions to answer while watching it for the second time. Students will be shown a picture, presenting four layers of Earth, they will be introduced to their names and, basing on the pictures and the descriptions of the layers, will complete fill-in the gaps reading exercise. The last task of the session is a creative collaborative writing activity, where students will have to describe Earth as if they were describing it to an alien and use the Voicethread to do it.

Session 4: Students will be offered a webquest about the continents. Afterwards, they will split into small groups and directed to earth.google.com. They will be asked to choose randomly one place on the map and plan a trip to this country/city. Students are supposed to create a PowerPoint presentation and describe the place briefly, talk about its climate/flora and fauna (as it was worked on in a webquest), explain why this place is perfect for vacations (even if it’s not) and how to get there. It will be a group project presented at the next session.

Session 5: Presentations.

You can find all the web links in the worksheets and sources.

Sources: Session 1: The Big Bang Theory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNDGgL73ihY Reading texts are adapted from https://steemit.com/universe/@jonval21/step-by-step-of-the-big-bang-theory https://www.space.com/13320-big-bang-universe-10-steps-explainer.html Session 2: The Solar System video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libKVRa01L8 Reading texts are adapted from https://space-facts.com Questions to discuss https://esldiscussions.com/p/planets.html The wordsearch is created with the help of http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp Session 3 ESL video https://www.eslvideo.com/quiz.php?id=36062 Reading texts are adapted from http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/earths-layers-lesson-1

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

1.Look at the questions below, can guess what are the answers? Discuss them with your partner.

The generally accepted theory of the solar system creation is 1. The theory of relativity 2. The Big Bang theory 3. Darwin’s Theory

How much time passed since the beginning of everything till Nucleosynthesis era?

1. 1 second 2. 1 hour 3. 100000 years

What happened in 1964…?

1. Cosmic background radiation was discovered 2. The first telescope was invented 3. Albert Einstein came up with the Theory of relativity

First the universe was extremely 1. Solid 2. Cold 3. Hot

The universe started …

1. Very big 2. Very small 3. Not started at all

2.Watch the video and check your ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNDGgL73ihY Watch the video again. Match the word and its definition. You can compare your answers with your partner.

quark

Small localized objects which have several physical or chemical properties such as volume, density or mass.

matter

A fundamental particle in physics.They join to form protons and neutrons.

to stretch

Building block of everything: life on Earth, the planets, the stars, and galaxies. It's defined as anything that has mass and occupies a volume of space.

to decrease

The natural force that causes things to fall toward the earth.

particles

To change shape when a force is exerted on an object, happens when the material or object is pulled.

gravity

To become smaller (as in size, amount, number, or intensity).

How it all started...

A) Singularity The Big Bang was not an explosion in space, as the theory's name might suggest. Instead, it was the appearance of space everywhere in the universe, researchers have said. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe was born as a very hot single point in space.

B) The inflation When the universe was very young — something like a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second (whew!) — it grew very quickly. During this burst of expansion, which is known as inflation, the universe doubled in size at least 90 times. After inflation, the universe continued to grow, but at a slower rate. As space expanded, the universe cooled and matter formed.

C) Primordial Soup This stage was when the universe began a superheated phase called primordial soup. During this time, the heat was so high neutrons, protons and electrons started to join. At the same time, there were these things called light photons that were bouncing off or latching onto electrons which caused a glow coming from the universe.

D) Reconbination About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, matter cooled enough for electrons to combine with nuclei to form neutral atoms. This phase is known as "recombination," and the absorption of free electrons caused the universe to become transparent.

Yet, the era of recombination was followed by a period of darkness before stars and other bright objects were formed.

E) Dark ages During this time, clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the very first stars and galaxies. The emitted ultraviolet light from these energetic events cleared out and destroyed most of the surrounding neutral hydrogen gas.

F) Birth of Stars and Galaxies The universe continues to expand rapidly, pockets of gas become more and more dense. Stars ignite within these pockets, and groups of stars become the earliest galaxies. This point is still perhaps 12 to 15 billion years before the present.

G) Birth of our solar system Our solar system was born a little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, making it about 4.6 billion years old. According to current estimates, the sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and orbits roughly 25,000 light-years from the galactic core.

Many scientists think the sun and the rest of our solar system was formed from a giant cloud of gas and dust known as the solar nebula. As gravity caused the nebula to collapse, it spun faster and flattened into a disk. During this phase, most of the material was pulled toward the center to form the sun.

3.Circle. Which text speaks about the stage when:

A glow (brillo) caused by light photons

a b c d e f g

Neutrons, protons and electrons started to join Our solar system was born

a b c d e f g

a b c d e f g

a b c d e f g a b c d e f g

The earliest galaxies were born The first stars appeared

The universe doubled in size at least 90 times faster than in a second.

The universe started cooling.

a b c d e f g

a b c d e f g

4.Say if the following statements are true Correct the false ones.

or false

1) Scientists say that originally the Universe was extremely cold.

2) In text B “inflation” is used to refer to an explosion.

3) Neutrons, protons and electrons started to join during “Primordial Soup” stage.

4) “Recombination” started 500.000 years after the Big Bang.

5) First stars appeared during “Dark Ages” period.

6) The Universe is still expanding.

5.Check the words in bold in the dictionary.

6.Close the text. Can you remember the main stages of the Bin Bang? Describe them.

Are we alone in the universe?...

1.Today we are going to learn about platents of the Solar 3.Watch the video again and say if the System, but first, can you answer these questions? following statements are true or false Do you know how many planets are there?

Can you remember their names?

1. The solar system is located in the Milky Way’s Orion star cluster_____ 2.Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?

2. The categories of stars are based on v=libKVRa01L8 and chech your answers. their composition: Terrestrial and Jovian_____ 4. Look at the planets. Can you read their descriptions 3. Terrestrial platens have ring and match them with the pictures? systems_____ 4. Mercury is the hottest planet_____ 5. Jovian planets include gas and ice giants_____ 6. Jovian planets have solid surface____ 7. Jupiter is the largest planet_____ 8. Oort cloud is considered the edge of the solar system_____

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

One of five planets visible with the naked eye a, Mercury is just 4,879 Kilometres across its equator, compared with 12,742 Kilometres for the Earth. It is the smallest planet of the Solar System, it does not have any moons or rings. It is extremely hot, because it is the closest planet to the Sun. Scientists say that it has “wrinkles”. As the iron core of the planet cooled and contracted, the surface of the planet became wrinkled. A day on the surface of Mercury lasts 176 Earth days. A year on Mercury takes 88 Earth days.

•Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is the second largest terrestrial planet. It is sometimes referred to as the Earth’s sister planet due to their similar size and mass.

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus is thought to be made up of a central iron core, rocky mantle and silicate crust.

Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets.

A day on the surface of Venus (solar day) would appear to take 117 Earth days. A year on Venus takes 225 Earth days.

Best known for its fabulous ring system, Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in our solar system. Like Jupiter, Saturnis a gas giant and is composed of similar gasses including hydrogen, helium and methane. Its rings are made mostly of chunks of ice and small amounts of carbonaceous dust. The rings stretch out more than 120,700 km from the planet, but are are amazingly thin: only about 20 meters thick.

It is the third planet from the Sun and is the largest of the terrestrial planets. The Earth is the only planet in our solar system not to be named after a Greek or Roman deity. The Earth was formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago and is the only known planet to support life. Its rotation is slowing down, but it happens so slowly that it could be as much as 140 million years before the length of a day will have increased to 25 hours.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is the second smallest planet in the solar system. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is also often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. It is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide. This planet is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system.

Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21km high and 600km in diameter.

Despite having formed over billions of years, evidence from volcanic lava flows is so recent many scientists believe it could still be active. Sunsets on Mars are blue.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It’s not visible to the naked eye, and became the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope.

Uranus is tipped over on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees. It is often described as “rolling around the Sun on its side.” Like the other gas giants, it has a hydrogen upper layer, which has helium mixed in. Below that is an icy “mantle, which surrounds a rock and ice core. The upper atmosphere is made of water, ammonia and the methane ice crystals that give the planet its pale blue colour.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is the fifth planet out from the Sun. It is two and a half times more massive than all the other planets in the solar system combined. It is made primarily of gases and is therefore known as a “gas giant”.

The upper atmosphere of Jupiter is divided into cloud belts and zones. They are made primarily of ammonia crystals, sulfur, and mixtures of the two compounds.

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, making it the most distant in the solar system.

This gas giant may have formed much closer to the Sun in the early solar system history before migrating out to its current position. A year on Neptune lasts 165 Earth years. It is named after the Roman god of the sea. The methane absorbs red light, which makes the planet appear a lovely blue. High, thin clouds drift in the upper atmosphere. Its surface temperature is -201°C.

5. Can you find all the planets in the wordsearch? 6.Let's talk! Discuss the following questions with your partner.

1. Do you think there’s life on other planets?

2. Would you like to visit another planet?

3. Do you think we should look for life on other planets?

4. How are all the planets different?

5. What do the names of the planets mean?

6. Would you like to see our planet from space?

7. Do you think it will be possible one day to go to planets in other solar systems?

8. Do you think Earth is a good name for our planet? I it the same in your language?

Little Blue Planet 1. Imagine how Earth looked like 4 billion years ago! Can you draw a picture?

2. Watch the video and check your ideas. Do the quiz https://www.eslvideo.com/quiz.php? id=36062

3. Now let's look inside! Can you read the description of Earth's layers and write their names? P.S. the texts are disordered.

2

3

1

1.Crust

4

2.Upper Mantle

5

3.Lower Mantle

4.Outer Core

5.Inner Core

a. The __________of the Earth is like a ball of very hot metals. (4000 degrees F. to 9000 degrees F.) The __________ ___________ is so hot that the metals in it are all in the liquid state. The __________ ___________ is located about 1800 miles beneath the crust and is about 1400 miles thick. The ___________ ___________ is composed of the melted metals nickel and iron. b. The Earth's __________ is like the skin of an apple. It is very thin in comparison to the other three layers. The __________ is only about 3-5 miles (8 kilometers) thick under the oceans(oceanic _________) and about 25 miles (32 kilometers) thick under the continents (continental _________). The temperatures of the __________ vary from air temperature on top to about 870 degrees celsius in the deepest parts of the _____________. It is broken into many pieces called plates. The plates "float" on the soft, plastic mantle which is located below the ____________. These plates usually move along smoothly but sometimes they stick and build up pressure. The pressure builds and the rock bends until it snaps. When this occurs an Earthquake is the result! c. The __________ of the Earth is like a ball of very hot metals. (4000 degrees F. to 9000 degrees F.) The __________ ___________ is so hot that the metals in it are all in the liquid state. The __________ ___________ is located about 1800 miles beneath the crust and is about 1400 miles thick. The ___________ ___________ is composed of the melted metals nickel and iron. d. The _________ is the layer located directly under the crust. It is the largest layer of the Earth, 1800 miles thick.

The ____________ is composed of very hot, dense rock. This layer of rock even flows like asphalt under a heavy weight. This flow is due to great temperature differences from the bottom to the top of the ___________. The movement of the _____________ is the reason that the plates of the Earth move! The temperature of the ___________ varies from 1600 degrees Fahrenheit at the top to about 4000 degrees Fahrenheit near the bottom!

4. Imagine that you are to contact the extraterrestrial intellect. You have to describe Earth to an alien. Use https://voicethread.com/ to do it.

5. Homework: At the beginning of the lesson we saw what Earth was like 4 billion years ago. Imagine what it would be like in 500 years. Use https://tarheelreader.org/ to tell your story.