Elanora Heights Home PageOur Research ProjectsArctic/Antarctic Project

Arctic/Antarctic Unit of work for 3/4D
Term 1 - 1998

The theme for this Term is "Antarctica" for year 3 and "The Arctic" for year 4. The themes have been integrated with the English program, the Human Society and its Environment program, the computer program, the library program and in the creative and practical arts program.


This is an Arctic diorama depicting the food web.
The students will be finding information about these places through Internet, Encarta, and Worldbook encyclopedia on CD ROM. They will be reading fiction and non-fiction on the topic, researching information, learning new words (their meaning and spelling) writing stories and poems etc, making comparisons between the two places, looking at cultures and environmental issues.

For this unit I will be using a combination of worksheets, videos, computer technology, encyclopedias, story books and pictures. The students will see parts of two videos "Life in the Freezer" and "Polar Bear".

Human Society and its Environment
Term 1 - 1998

ContentSkillsValues and AttitudesChange and continuity
CulturesEnvironmentsSocial SystemsLearning Activities

 

Content - Theme: Antarctica/Arctic.Skills
Values and Attitudes
The values and attitudes promoted in the syllabus are:
FEATURES OF ENVIRONMENTS
* Australia's location in the world/region and near neighbours including Antarctica.
* Interdependence of natural systems.

WORLD HISTORY/EVENTS
* Relevent current worls affairs to the students' backgrounds
* Relevent case studies of Australia's neighbours.

MAPPING AND LOCATION
*Reading maps

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
* Effects of environments on human activities.
* Effects of human activities on environments

CARE OF ENVIRONMENTS
* Organisations and people that protect and care for the environment.		INITIATING INVESTIGATIONS
* Reflecting on previous experiences and existing knowledge and skills.
* Recording and presenting information in various ways.
*Posing questions about investigations.
IDENTIFYING/GATHERING INFORMATION
* Selecting relevant sources of information such as parents, experts, local area, libraries, telephone directories, maps, information technology, media, surveys, interviews, organisations etc.
* Research specific topics and publish their findings on a web page.
ANALYSING/ORGANISING INFORMATION
* analysing and interpreting information- identifying similarities and differences, classifying and labelling, comparing and contrasting, detecting bias and stereotyping, distinguishing between fact and opinion, identifying cause and effect.
* Be aware of the target audience and present work that other children will want to look at and find interesting.
* Log onto Internet and other study web pages made by children in other schools to see what works best.
PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING ACTION INDIVIDUALLY OR IN GROUPS.
* Following directions and seeking help when needed in class and school.
* Participating by solving problems.
REFLECTING ON THEIR LEARNING.
* Describing sequences of activities that they went through, throughout their learning and at the culmination of their learning.
* Communicating increases in knowledge and skills to a variety of audiences, peers, teachers, parents and guardians.		INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING.
* Respect for different viewpoints, ways of living, belief systems and languages.
ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY
* Wonder at the diversity of life on Earth and the magnitude of the universe.
* Recognition of interdependence of people and environment.
LEARNING.
* Curiosity and readiness to participate in learning about society and environment.
*Ability to make connections between what they know and what they are learning.
VALUES IDENTIFICATION
* Recognising different value positions in a situation or issue.
VALUES CLARIFICATION
* Explaining how behaviours reflect value positions.
*Compare and contrast values in relation to behaviour.


Change and Continuity

Cultures

The students will:
These outcomes will be the focus of the Term 2 theme and will not be a major part of this unit. 		The students will:
* give examples of different viewpoints, ways of living, languages and belief systems in a variety
of communities.
* identify customs, practises, symbols, languages and traditions that communities share and
which create community identities.

THIS WILL BE EVIDENT WHEN STUDENTS:
* explain that individuals and communities have many influences on their identities and practices.
* explain the customs, practises, symbols, languages and traditions of a variety of communities and give reasons why similarities or differences exist.

Environments

Social Systems and Structures

The students will:
* evaluate people's interactions with environments in Australia and other places and identify responsible ways of interacting with environments.

THIS WILL BE EVIDENT WHEN STUDENTS:
* use maps and globes to locate Australia, areas of Australia and Australia's neighbours.
* describe how the location of resources influences where people live and the ways in which people and communities meet their needs.
* evaluate the positive and negative effects of resource use and management on local and global environments, including people.		The students will:
* show how and why people and technologies interact to meet needs and explain the effects of
these interactions on the people and environment.

THIS WILL BE EVIDENT WHEN STUDENTS:
* examine a variety of systems that have been designed to meet needs in communities and discern the advantages and disadvantages.

Learning Activities

Introduction

* Students will brainstorm all the words they can think of to associate with Antarctica/Arctic. Teacher will create a wordbank and display these words in the classroom.
* Students will brainstorm everything they know about Antarctica/Arctic and discuss the things they would like to find out about these places. Teacher will display these in the classroom.


A selection of our work on Antarctic/Antarctic regions
went on display in the front foyer of the school.

Where is Antarctica/Arctic and why are they unique?

* Students will locate Antarctica/Arctic on a map and discuss their positions in relation to Australia and the world.
Students will name the significant features surrounding these places including oceans, Islands and their place on the globe such as hemispheres, and latitude and longitude
(year 4).
* Students will examine information texts as opposed to narrative texts on the theme and recognise the differences between the two including their purpose, layout and features.

* Students will develop a fact file on Antarctica/Arctic, using encyclopedias (Encarta and Worldbook) and other information they have found (some students will find information on their computers at home as well.)
* Students will construct a food chain. (Antarctica - Year 3) (Arctic - Year 4) After brainstorming a list of animals which inhabits each area, the students will conduct research to find out what the animal eats and who eats it. This will be put together to form a food chain. These will be published on Web pages.

This is a food chain of the Arctic region made by 4D

What is life like in these places compared to Australia?

* In grade groups, students will describe what life is like living in Sydney, Australia. For example, clothes we wear in Winter and Summer, how we obtain food and other needs, how we get help when we are sick and how we travel about our community.
After reporting these to the class, students will make comparisons with life in Antarctica at a Science station (Year 3) and the Arctic as an Eskimo (Year 4).
* In grade groups (Year 3 will have 3 groups with 4 students in each. Year 4 will have 5 groups, 4 groups with 3 students and 1 group with 2 students) students will complete a mini-project in class, which will focus on finding information about the Environment, Weather, Animal and Plant Life and Human Activity, in Antarctica
(Year 3) and The Arctic (Year 4). Students will present these to the class and the students will compare the two places and complete a "Similarities and Differences" chart.


Greenland study

* Students will establish Internet links with another school, based on our theme.
Year 3 students will link up with Western Australia where Arnold (a toy swagman) has gone to Antarctica for a year and is sending back photos and letters. They will write to Arnie.
*Year 4 will reestablish the link with Fred Ipalook Elementary School in Barrow, Alaska.
They will look at a Greenland Virtual Tour and will also link with students in Hornbæk, Denmark who studied Greenland last November.

Let us see some REAL footage of these spectacular places and their amazing wildlife!

* Students will view relevant parts of a video titled "The Polar Bear" which looks at the Arctic environment and describes the food chain and the life-cycle of a Polar Bear. After viewing the video, students will answer questions about the video in a "Sale of the Century" game.
* Students will also view a small section of a video titled "Life in the Freezer" which is about the flora and fauna, seasons and scientific experiments happening in Antarctica. Students will answer teacher developed questions about the video and link these to information they have found on the issues in both areas.

What is the Antarctic Treaty (1959) and the
CAFF (Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna) Project?

* Students will brainstorm the environmental problems they have heard of, or know anything about from Antarctica and the Arctic. Teacher will add any environmental concerns in the Antarctic/Arctic areas to the list and, with the teacher's assistance, students will locate information on one of these issues.
* Teacher/students will summarise the Antarctic Treaty and the CAFF Project and briefly describe their purpose.
* Teacher will simplify information found by the students and teacher/student will relate it to some of the environmental issues in Australia.

How do these environmental issues relate to Australia?

* Students will examine a few environmental issues in Australia through research work initiated by teacher's questions. Students will write/suggest/design ways of protecting and conserving the environment e.g. asking Mum or Dad to buy "dolphin friendly" tuna.

Let us relate our class work to what we are doing in library and computer.

* In library, students will research an Antarctic/Arctic animal and complete an information sheet on the animal including information about what the animal looks like, where it lives (in summer and winter perhaps), what it eats, who its predators are, and whether it is in danger of becoming extinct or if it is a threatened species.
Students will gather the information and, as a class, create a simple food chain for each area (Antarctica/Arctic).
* In class students will use this information and the simple sentences developed through library, to write an information report. Students will present their report to the class.


Children using Simpark.
* Using SIMPARK, students will set up their own environmental area which they have to manage sustainably.
* All our hard work will culminate with the Science Day on Ecosystems on April 1st, 1998 where we will learn a lot more about our topic and other eco-systems that exist in the environment around us.

 to read the Project Overview explaining how these three teachers worked together to facilitate this project.


Class Teacher
Natalie Danko


Computer Co-ordinator
Judith Bennett


Teacher-Librarian
Anne-Marie Morrison


to read my classwork plans
for this class.


to read my computer plans
for this class


to read my library work
plans for this class.

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Natalie Danko, Class Teacher

Class Teacher : Natalie Danko This page was last modified on 7th April, 1998