Glaciers: Teaching IdeasVisual Learning
A highly effective visual aid for comparing previous ice cover on Earth and current ice cover on Earth could be diagrams or models. Aerial photographs are particularly useful for showing how glaciers advance or retreat over periods of time.
A graph of global temperatures and a graph of the sea level over a longer timescale would be helpful to support pupils understandings of glacial and interglacial periods. Using OS maps to identify glacial features based on the contour lines of a landscape could be used as a detective style activity. An area students are familiar with or have heard of might be more interesting to them and give them examples in the UK as well as in other countries e.g. Snowdonia. |
You could follow this up with an activity using Google Earth looking at the same landscape as with the OS maps but seeing if students accurately matched the features to the correct places. You can have students assess their own answers using the first person views on Google Earth to more easily identify the landforms.
For your class to learn about the different uses for glaciers you could use a game of charades. Have volunteers or choose students to act out a use for glaciers and have the various uses written on cards that you give the student once they are at the front of the class. Examples you could use are: skiing, snowboarding, wildlife, rivers, agriculture, mining/drilling for oil, minerals and gas, generating electricity (hydroelectric power). After completing all of the cards you can have a class discussion about what students thought, were they surprised by any? Were they confused by any? Can they think of any more?
For your class to learn about the different uses for glaciers you could use a game of charades. Have volunteers or choose students to act out a use for glaciers and have the various uses written on cards that you give the student once they are at the front of the class. Examples you could use are: skiing, snowboarding, wildlife, rivers, agriculture, mining/drilling for oil, minerals and gas, generating electricity (hydroelectric power). After completing all of the cards you can have a class discussion about what students thought, were they surprised by any? Were they confused by any? Can they think of any more?
Demonstrations / Experiments
There are some opportunities for physical demonstrations in this topic. Personally I would use a tray of sand and enact the process or movement of a glacier and ask students to monitor how the sand moves. Hopefully it would allow you to create lateral, terminal and medial moraines. You could also attempt to create a cirque using a small ball to represent the rotational movement of a glaciers erosion.
You could also demonstrate how sea level is higher or lower depending on how much ice there is around the world. If you use a bowl to represent the sea and have some ice cubes in it to represent ice caps. You can measure the depth of the water in this scenario at the start of the lesson. Towards the end of the lesson or when the ice cubes have melted you can then measure the depth of the water again and have students assess what has happened. Then you could ask them to consider what would happen if you did the same experiment but in reverse. You may wish to record this experiment to refer to later on in lessons or for students to re watch during revision.
You could also demonstrate how sea level is higher or lower depending on how much ice there is around the world. If you use a bowl to represent the sea and have some ice cubes in it to represent ice caps. You can measure the depth of the water in this scenario at the start of the lesson. Towards the end of the lesson or when the ice cubes have melted you can then measure the depth of the water again and have students assess what has happened. Then you could ask them to consider what would happen if you did the same experiment but in reverse. You may wish to record this experiment to refer to later on in lessons or for students to re watch during revision.
Group Work
If you were covering this topic with a younger year group, such as year 7 or 8 then you could put them in groups and ask them to create a 3D model of the landforms associated with glaciers. You would need to have good access to art resources and at least time to spend two lessons on this activity. If you wanted you could divide the groups so that some focus on depositional features while others focus on erosional features. You may also want students to find a creative way to label their features so you can identify them if their creative skills leave rather a lot to the imagination.
If you were covering this topic with a younger year group, such as year 7 or 8 then you could put them in groups and ask them to create a 3D model of the landforms associated with glaciers. You would need to have good access to art resources and at least time to spend two lessons on this activity. If you wanted you could divide the groups so that some focus on depositional features while others focus on erosional features. You may also want students to find a creative way to label their features so you can identify them if their creative skills leave rather a lot to the imagination.
Written Work
Students could pretend to be activists in a campaign to shut down Alpine tourist attractions. Their task could be to create a leaflet or a poster with information about the social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in Alpine areas. They could also use this work to practice their literacy skills and focus on using persuasive language and persuasive arguments. You might want to have pupils create persuasive posters of leaflets for the opposite campaign of opening more tourist attractions in Alpine areas. If you have a particularly well-behaved class you could perhaps make it a friendly competition to see who can be the most persuasive and have other members of staff or other students from outside of your class be judges. If you like the idea of more creative presentations there might be the option of students creating a short film or advert for the task, depending on resources.
Students could pretend to be activists in a campaign to shut down Alpine tourist attractions. Their task could be to create a leaflet or a poster with information about the social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in Alpine areas. They could also use this work to practice their literacy skills and focus on using persuasive language and persuasive arguments. You might want to have pupils create persuasive posters of leaflets for the opposite campaign of opening more tourist attractions in Alpine areas. If you have a particularly well-behaved class you could perhaps make it a friendly competition to see who can be the most persuasive and have other members of staff or other students from outside of your class be judges. If you like the idea of more creative presentations there might be the option of students creating a short film or advert for the task, depending on resources.
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