THE UNIVERSE.

SCHOOL COLEGIO CALASANCIO

COURSE 1th ESO (SECONDARY EDUCATION)

SUBJECT SCIENCES

SESSIONS 3 SESSIONS-FEBRUARY

OBJECTIVES.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

-To understand and use the basic strategies and concepts of the nature to

interpret natural phenomena.

-To understand and express scientifical messages using oral and written

language and to communicate explanations in the field of Science.

-To adopt critical attitudes base on the knowledge to analyze, individually or in

group, Scientific and technological matters.

-To understand the importance of using scientifical knowledge to meet the

human needs and participate in the necessary takes decisions on local and

global problems to which we face.

SPECIFIC OBJETIVES (SCIENCES)

-To know the existente of the Solar System and its composition.

-To learn the name of the objects which exist in the Solar System.

-To acquire knowledge about the planets of the Solar System.

-To process information about the Universe.

-To appreaciate the interest of the sciences in the daily life.

-To participate in debates about the Universe and the Planets.

SPECIFIC OBJETIVES (LANGUAGE)

-To understand general and specific information from oral and written texts.

-To communicate with the others to interact orally and express information

related to the Universe.

-To write easy texts with different purposes about the topics of The Universe,

The Sun and The Planets.

-To use the basic phonetic, lexical, structural and functional components of the

foreign language in real contexts.

CONTENTS.

CONCEPTS

-The Solar System.

-The Sun.

-The Planets.

-Concepts: Solar System, Sun, moon, elliptical, motion, planet, comet, asteroid,

orbit, mass, astronomer, dwarf planet, Milky Way galaxy, star, nuclear fusion, to

produce, energy, heat, light, Earth, surface, storm, sunspot, explosion, solar

flare, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, crater, volcano, Jupiter, Saturn, ice, dust,

Uranus, particle, Neptune.

PROCEDURES

-Reading science texts about the Universe.

-Oral, listening and written comprehension of texts.

-Location of the planets and comparison of them.

-Identification of planets and other objects in the Universe.

ATTITUDES

-Interest and curiosity of knowing the Universe and other spatial objects.

-Interest and motivation for the language.

-To appreciate the use of the language.

-To be aware of the life in the Earth, impossible in other planets.

BASIC COMPETENCES.

BC1. LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION

Linguistic communication competence is referred to the use of language as an

instrument both for oral and written learning communication and to regulate and

express behaviors and emotions. Communication in foreign languages also

focuses on skills such as mediation and intercultural understanding.

BC3. KNOWLEDGE AND INTERACTION WITH THE PHYSICAL WO RLD

It is the ability to interact with the physical world, both in the natural aspects and

in those generated by human action, to facilitate the understanding of events,

predicting consequences and activity addressed to the improvement and

preservation of the conditions of life of its own, the other men and women and

the rest of living beings.

BC4. TREATMENT OF THE INFORMATION AND DIGITAL COMPE TENCE

Skills to be able to search, find, receive, process and communicate the

information and transform it into knowledge. Includes different aspects ranging

from access and selection of the information to the use and transmission of it in

various media, including the use of the the information and communication

technologies as a essential to learn and communicate.

BC5. SOCIAL AND CIVIC COMPETENCE

This competence allows to live in society, understand the social reality of the

world in which we live and exercise the democratic citizenship. Incorporates

forms of individual behavior that train people to live in a pluralistic society,

interact with others, cooperate and deal with conflicts.

BC7. LEARNING TO LEARN

Learning to learn means to start learning and be able to continue independently.

BC8. AUTONOMY AND PERSONAL ENTERPRISE

This competence is referred to the possibility of opting with own judgement and

take forward the initiatives required to develop the chosen option and be

responsible for it.

METHODOLOGY.

The methodology is going to be active and participative, focusing on the

constructivism theory, it is said, we are going to consider the previous

knowledge and construct over them new knowledge. The student is going to be

in the centre of the process and the teacher will be a mentor, a guide who will

guide him or her, helping them all the time they need some help. The

conceptual contents will be combined with the procedures and attitudes.

We are also going to focus on the individual work, paying attention on

each student and assessing them individually with a portfolio.

Students will be asked to participate, to debate, to discuss and to share

information among them in order to enrich the teaching-learning process.

EVALUATION CRITERIA.

At the end of the Didactic Unit the student will be able to:

-To know the existente of the Solar System and its composition.

-To learn the name of the objects which exist in the Solar System.

-To have knowledge about the planets of the Solar System.

-To process information about the Universe.

-To appreaciate the interest of the sciences in the daily life.

-To participate in debates about the Universe and the Planets.

-To understand general and specific information from oral and written texts.

-To communicate with the others to interact orally and express information

related to the Universe.

-To write easy texts with different purposes about the topics of The Universe,

The Sun and The Planets.

-To use the basic phonetic, lexical, structural and functional components of the

foreign language in real contexts.

RESOURCES.

-A projector.

-A powerpoint (prepared by the teacher).

-Some pieces of papers for the Portfolio.

EVALUATION / ASSESSMENT.

The evaluation of the present teaching unit has to answer the questions

of what, how and when eavluate, as well as offering information about aspects

that may be or must be improved during the evaluation process. To do it,

proposals for improvement can be done after the assessment. Thus, the

evaluation requires rigour and transparency, has to be a process that promotes

the participation of the involved subjects (Moreno Beltran, in Lledó 2007).

So, all the activities and tasks will be assessed during the period of time

which lasts the Didactic Unit, responding this process to a formative and

continuous assessment in which will be a follow-up to individualized student

with an emphasis on those deficient elements that can be corrected or changed,

in order to produce the learning from the subject (Scriven, 1967).

The acquisition of competences and the achievement of the objectives

set initially will be the guidelines that will guide us in the evaluative process. In

relation to the moments in which the assessment will be done, we highlight the

following:

-Initial or previous evaluation , in which the initial level of the students will be

identified to establish a starting point for the evaluation process that will guide

us, both the student and teacher.

-Continuous evaluation , which will identify accomplishments and acquisitions

that students will be performing throughout the process, in order to identify the

individual progress and see the evolution of the same.

-Final evaluation , which will identify accomplishments and skills that the

student has acquired throughout the process. It is an assessment that will help

us to differentiate between students who have reached the required minimum of

sufficient competence in this Didactic Unit and those who have failed to reach

that threshold of knowledge, procedures and attitudes.

Four basic evaluations instruments and strategies are going to be

evaluated and considered when we establish the final mark:

20% Attendance, motivation and participation. The 20% of the final mark will

depended on the participation and the implication of the students in my lessons.

30% Portfolio. A portfolio is a file where students will be asked to include the

activities they were going to do in class and the homework. It is going to

suppose the 30% of the final calification.

10% Homework. The activities done at home will be part of the homewrk. It is

going to suppose the 10% of the final calification.

40% Final exam. The last strategy we are going to use to establish a final mark

of the project is a written examination. The exam will combine four kinds of

questions and tasks: a dictation, a make-sentences task, a true/false activity

and a multiple choice questionnaire.

The final mark will be the ponderation of the previous strategies and

instruments.

CONTENT SEQUENCE.

SESSION 1.

Activity 1. Introduction. A brief explanation of the contents of the Didactic

Unit: “The Solar System”, “The Sun” and “The Planets”.

Activity 2. Explaining the portfolio and the vocabu lary builder. A brief

explanation of the working methodology and come aspects about the

evaluation. Each word the students do not knot must be writen in the

Vocabulary Builder, which will be completed with some tasks.

Activity 3. Brainstorming. An initial task to evaluate the students’ previous

knowledge about the topic. The main topic is writen on the blackboard and the

students are asked to tell words related to this topic.

Activity 4. Reading: The Solar System. The students will be asked to read a

text proposed by the teacher about the Solar System and try to understand as

much as they can. They will have to translate into spanish.

Activity 5. Comprehension activities. Some questions about the topic which

have to be completed by the students to check if they have understood the

content previously explained.

Homework. For homework, students are told to look for some words and make

sentences. They are going to be checked in the next session. With these words

the vocabulary builder was going to be build.

SESSION 2.

Activity 1. Energyzer. To wake the students up an “energyzer” is proposed.

The task consisted on walking around the classroom, because they were

planets orbiting the Solar System, and when I told a number of planets they had

to form groups compouned by this number of people/planets.

Activity 2. Reviewing contents. A revision and review of the main contents

and concepts taught in the previous session with a particular methodology:

telling false sentences and waiting for the students’ corrections.

Activity 3. Reading: The Sun. The students had to read a text proposed by the

teacher about the Sun and try to understand as much as they can. They will

have to translate into spanish.

Activity 4. Comprehension activities. Some questions about the topic which

have to be completed by the students to check if they have understood the

content previously explained.

Activity 5. Debate. A debate about this topic:

“The Solar System is a very huge and enormous thing. It is full of planets,

comets, meteorites, asteroids... Do you think we could live in another planet?

Why? Why not?”

The students are asked to tell ideas and opinions about it, while they are

participating and reviewing lexical and grammatical structures.

Activity 6. Correcting homework. The homework must be corrected, so the

students will be asked to share their answers and sentences.

Homework. For homework, students are asked to review the contents.

SESSION 3.

Activity 1. Reviewing contents. A revision and review of the main contents

and concepts taught in the previous sessions with our false-sentences

methodology: telling false sentences and waiting for the students’ corrections.

Activity 2. Reading: The Planets. The students had to read a text proposed by

the teacher about the Planets and try to understand as much as they can. They

will have to translate into spanish.

Activity 3. Reviewing recent contents. A revision and review of the recent

contents and concepts asking the studens questions.

Activity 4. Final exam. During the last 30 minutes the students will be ask to

take a final exam. The exam combined four kinds of questions: first part:

dictation (4 points). I told them some sentences related to the Solar System and

the contents we had studied; second part: True or false (1 point). Five

statements and the students have to tell if they are true or false; third part:

writing sentences (2,5 points). The students have to write five sentences with

some words in a box; and forth part: multiple choice questions (2,5 points). Five

multiple choice questionnaire with three possible choices and just one is

correct.

Activity 5. Self-evaluation and feedback. The students will be asked to

provide the teacher with a feedback and a self-evaluation, telling wht they have

learnt and if they liked the Didactic Unit. It will be useful for future changes and

improvements.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Lledó Becerra, A.I. (2007) La Orientación educativa desde la práctica.

Fundación ECOEM, Sevilla.

Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las

enseñanzas mínimas correspondientes a la Educación Secundaria

Obligatoria.

Scriven, M. (1967) The methodology of evaluation: Perspectives of curriculum

evaluation.

WEBGRAPHY.

Welcome to StarChild. A learning center for young astronomers.

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

APPENDIX.

ENGLISH TEST. “THE UNIVERSE”

NAME

COURSE

NUMBER

SCORE

1. DICTATION (4 points). ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… 2. TRUE OR FALSE? (1 point). __ The Earth is in the center of the Solar System. __ Nine planets orbit the Sun. __ Pluto is not a planet, but it is a “dwarf planet”. __ The Sun is the smallest object in the Solar System. __ The Sun produces solar flares. 3. WRITE FIVE SENTENCES WITH THE WORDS IN THE BOX: (2,5 points)

ASTEROID PLANET ORBIT ENERGY PLUTO

………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… ………………………………………………………………………………………….… 4. ANSWER THE FOLOWING QUESTIONS: (2,5 POINTS)

A) 1 billion years old. B) 2 billion years old.

How old is the Solar System?

C) 4 billion years old. A) Saturn B) Pluto

Which of these objects is not a planet?

C) Venus A) Venus B) Jupiter

What is the biggest planet in the Solar System?

C) Saturn A) Venus B) Jupiter

What is the closest planet to Earth?

C) Saturn A) Uranus B) Mercury

What is the closest planet to the Sun?

C) Mars

POWERPOINT SLIDES. CONTENTS.

THE UNIVERSE

DIDACTIC UNIT FOR 1º ESO

INDEX OF CONTENTS

1. THE SOLAR SYSTEM (Sesion 1)

PORTAFOLIO.

VOCABULARY BUILDER.

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES.

SPEAKING TASK / TRANSLATION ACTIVITY.

2. THE SUN (Sesion 2)

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES.

SPEAKING TASK / TRANSLATION ACTIVITY.

INDEX OF CONTENTS (II)

3. THE PLANETS (Sesion 3)

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES.SPEAKING TASK.

4. FINAL EVALUATION (Sesion 3)

FINAL TEST ( Don’t worry, it is easy ;-) ).

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

What is the solar system? It is our Sun and everything that travels around it. Our solar system is elliptical in shape. That means it is shaped like an egg. The Sun is in the center of the solar system. Our solar system is always in motion. Eight known planets and their moons, along with comets , asteroids , and other space objects orbit the Sun. The Sun is the biggest object in our solar system. It contains more than 99% of the solar system's mass . Astronomers think the solar system is more than 4 billion years old.Astronomers are now finding new objects far, far from the Sun which they call dwarf planets. Pluto , which was once called a planet, is now called a dwarf planet.

LET’S SEE THE SOLAR SYSTEM

SPEAKING TASK

The Solar System is a very huge and enormous thing. It is full of planets, comets, meteorites, asteroids… Do you think you could live in another planet? Why? Why not?

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES

1. What is the Solar System?

2. Our Solar System is _________ in shape.

3. Where is the Sun in the Solar System?

4. How many planets are there in the S.S.?

5. What objects are orbiting the Sun?

6. What is the biggest object in the S.S.?

7. What are Astronomers finding now?

8. Which planet is now called “dwarf planet”?

9. Find these words in the dictionary: elliptical, moon, planet, comet, asteroid, astronomer.

THE SUN

The Sun is our closest star. It is a member of the Milky Way galaxy . The Sun is a yellow star and it is a medium size star. It is around 4 billion years ol d. The center of the Sun is very hot. A process called "nuclear fusion" takes place there. Nuclear fusion produces a lot of energy . Some of this energy travels around the space as heat and light. Some of it arrives at Earth!On the Sun's surface, we can see storms. We call these storms "sunspots" because they look like dark spots on the Sun's surface. The Sun also produces big explosions of energy called solar flares .

LET’S SEE THE SUN

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES

1. What is our closest star?

2. The Sun is a _________ star.

3. How old is the Sun?

4. How is the center of the Sun?

5. What is produced by the Nuclear fusion?

6. What can we see on the Sun’s surface?

7. How do we call these storms?

8. What is a solar flare?

9. Find these words in the dictionary: galaxy, energy, surface, explosion, flare.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PLANETS?

THE PLANETS

MERCURY is the smallest planet in our solar system a nd it is very close to the Sun.

VENUS is the closest planet to Earth, but it does n ot have oceans or human life like Earth.

EARTH is where we live. There is no life in other p lanets. It has oceans, animals, plants and humans.

MARS has many craters and volcanoes.

THE PLANETS (II)

JUPITER is the largest planet in our solar system.

SATURN is surrounded by over 1000 rings made of ice and dust.

URANUS has eleven rings which contain dark particle s. Uranus has 27 moons.

NEPTUNE is the coldest and the farthest planet in o ur solar system.

LET’S SEE THE PLANETS