NEWS
Estelle Morris at Blackpool conference
The former education secretary will be one of the keynote speakers at the North of England Education Conference in Blackpool, January 5-7. It will focus on SEN and parental responsibility. Go to: www.neec2011.co.uk
Recycle your school stationery
Eco-firm TerraCycle has launched a scheme to recycle used school writing instruments. It will pay schools 2p for every pen, pencil or marker collected. To sign up for the scheme, go to www.terracycle.co.uk
Meet a NASA astronaut
Pupils from eight to 18 will get the opportunity to meet an astronaut in a competition organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society. Children will be set a range of age-differentiated challenges. To register, go to www.aerosocietychannel.commeet-an-astronaut. Entries close on November 1.
GEOGRAPHY
What the lesson is about
This looks at tourism as one of a series of eight lessons on climate change that aims to encourage classroom debate. It is aimed at key stage 4 pupils.
Aims: pupils will -
- identify the impact that leisure and tourism have on the environment;
- recognise the effects of eco-tourism on a country.
Getting started
Get pupils to write down where they have been on holiday in the past two years. Discuss these destinations as a class and the growth of travel. Ask pupils to investigate the growth of tourism and its environmental impact. Introduce the subject of national parks and get the pupils to describe their key characteristics and the aims behind the creation of a network of national parks.
Taking it further
Discuss land ownership in national parks. Ask pupils to think about why problems and conflicts occur in the Lake District. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tourism.
Show the class pictures or video of the floods in Keswick in Cumbria last November. Get them to discuss the pressures of tourism and to research the Sandford principle, which states that where conservation and recreation cannot be reconciled, conservation must have priority.
Where to find it
The complete eight-lesson series was originally uploaded by Teach First and can be found at www.tes.co.ukclimate-change-planning
MATHS
What the lesson is about
It uses a frequency chart to look at mean, median and mode and is aimed at Year 7.
Aims: pupils will -
- be able to process and represent data, using ICT as appropriate;
- calculate statistics for small sets of discrete data;
- interpret and discuss results;
- compare simple distributions.
Getting started
Using the spreadsheet on the link below, create a graph, setting the frequencies for one to nine. The spreadsheet will calculate the mean, median and mode. Change the frequencies. What do pupils notice about the effect on the measures of average and on the range?
Increase the top-range frequencies. What happens to the mean, median and mode? Do the same with the bottom and middle of the range. What do pupils notice about the order of the averages?
Taking it further
Create a bar chart (pictured) and ask pupils to change the frequencies to produce a given mean, median and mode so that all three are equal or within a given range. Conceal the mean, median and mode and create a chart, challenging pupils to predict which averages will be the smallest and which the biggest. Hide the chart and ask pupils to predict the shape of the graph for a set of averages and range.
Where to find it
The lesson was originally uploaded by Michael Sharman and can be found at www.tes.co.ukaverages
LANGUAGES
What the lesson is about
It introduces the future tense in German and is aimed at key stage 3 pupils.
Aims: pupils will -
- be able to use the future tense to talk about plans for the future.
Getting started
Explain that it is easy to form the future tense (pictured): use the subject, followed by the right form of the verb werden and the infinitive of the relevant verb at the end of the sentence, for example Ich werde gesund essen (I will eat healthily).
Show the pupils the conjugations of werden. Show them pictures of different activities (available on the link below) and ask them to come up with sentences describing the activities in the future tense.
Taking it further
Ask the pupils to come up with sentences in the future tense describing a healthy lifestyle, such as “I will give up smoking”. Get them to create two characters who live unhealthily and write declarations of changes they will make in their lives. Some can be by one of the characters and some should be on behalf of both. Ask the class to explain why the characters will do these things.
Where to find it
The lesson was originally uploaded by lydiadavies and can be found at www.tes.co.ukhealthy-living-german.
