Module 6

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Investigating Coastal and Marine
Environments through SOSE

Activities

OHTs

Readings

Resources

Resource 1 A Guided Journey Resource 2

Guided Journey Discussion Guide

Resource 3 Catchment and Coastal Pollution
Resource 4 Pollution Events Resource 5 Newspaper Reports on Pollution Events Resource 6 Questions About the Pollution Events
Resource 7 The Process Strand in SOSE Resource 8 Evaluation Matrix Resource 9 Opportunities and Constraints
Resource 10 Enquiry Unit Planning        

Resources

Resource 1

A Guided Journey

Make yourself comfortable ... make sure you are in a position where you can comfortably relax for the next five minutes ... you will need to relax ... close your eyes... make your mind go blank ... think only about breathing in and out slowly ... breathing in to the count of 1 2 3 and out 1 2 3, and in 1 2 3 out 1 2 3... now your mind is blank ... and you feel relaxed ... you feel very calm and relaxed ... slowly you are becoming conscious of a bird call ... the bird is quite a distance away from you ... now it is coming closer ... it is getting louder ... there are other birds now ... it is early morning on the beach ... you realise that you are able to float around and take a close look at everything ... float up to the tree tops and sit with the birds for a while... then you hear the voices of children ... they are laughing and enjoying themselves ... you can see what they are doing ... but they cannot see you.

 

The children look like they are having breakfast ... there are about three groups ... you notice there are four adults with the children ... the children look about twelve years old ... one group of students are chatting over their breakfast ... Jenny says ... "how far do we have to walk today?" ... all David could say was ... "a long way' ... Bill wanted to know why all Year 7 camps have to have such a long walk along the beach ... John was preoccupied with checking he had enough food and water to last ... the students, teachers and two parents set off for their walk ... the students had no idea where they were going ... except that this is what everyone does on Year 7 camp... you walk along ... they walk very quickly and stop only occasionally for everyone to have something to eat ... there isn't much time to look ... the children all seem intent on carrying their backpacks and making it to the place where they will sleep that night...

 

You decide to float away from this scene ... you move high up into the clouds ... then back down again ... you can see from the sky a school ... you float down and find a Year 10 class ... you take a seat on the window ledge to watch ... the room has thirty single desks in it ... the desks are arranged in five rows of six ... the students are all sitting quietly writing in their notebooks ... they are writing down the information from the blackboard ... the teacher talks now and then ... they seem to be writing down information about what a wetland looks like ... they will soon have to draw a picture ... three students up the back of the room are distracted by something happening outside ... they are told to get back to work ...

 

You decide to move on to the noise that distracted the students... this room looks really busy ... these are Year 5 students sitting in small groups reading things and really discussing issues ... they are arguing a lot and justifying their reasons for saying things ... each of the groups had a different role ... as tourists, councillor, developer, an ecotourist, local residents and so on ... each group has to justify whether an on the coast should be rezoned for development ... the teacher is talking to different groups as they ask questions ... some students are now leaving the room to go to the library to find out some information ... another student is going to make a phone call to clarify a detail ... these students will soon have a public meeting to discuss the issue ... this is a simulation of a similar case that has happened in the local area ... they will use this study to highlight the things groups do in response to environmental issues. This room looked really interesting ... but you need to move on ...

 

You decide to visit a junior science class ... you go to their normal lab ... they aren't there ... then you see them making their way down to the local stream ... follow them down ... they are going to test the water because they are concerned that the new industrial estate has been dumping things into the stream and it flows into the sea ... some of the students used to swim in the stream and now they say it smells funny ... they have organised a range of tests to do today to check out the situation and then decide what they can do about it ... the teacher has helped them decide what tests to do and how to analyse the results ... she helps them keep track of where they are going ... Karen says "our teacher is great because she always makes sure we choose a few things to do well rather than heaps of things half done" ... Jill says she wants to go to the council and tell them all about what they find out ... "they need to know that this is happening and we need to work out how to stop it ... it will take us a bit of time to get all the information we need before we can go down and see them".

 

Well its time to go now ... back up to the sky and nothingness ... then you will come back down ... you can see me ... you can see where we are ... settle yourself ... you are conscious of where we are ... you slowly open your eyes and see the other participants.




Resource 2

Guided Journey Discussion Guide

In small groups discuss the following questions:

  1. If you were a student, which class(es) would you like to be in? Why?

  2. As a teacher, which class do you think might take the most time to prepare for?

  3. Which class would you like to teach? Why?

  4. What makes the learning different between these classes?

  5. In which class(es) do you feel the teacher was using enquiry-based teaching? Why?