Today we had a single lesson, not the most productive, but the issue of structured discussion continues to play on my mind, many great ideas though, we just need more focus.
We started by summarising our learning on our changing perceptions of extreme environments, we answered a number of statements, such as ‘ It would be easy to visit here’ and considered whether this had changed with the passage of time. (more…)
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Well another baker in the home of learning and it has difficult going this afternoon. Some great thinking though.
We started by looking critically at our language used in our extreme definitions, I think students thought it was insightful to reflect on their writing under pressure (Or perhaps they just thought I was mean 
). We then considered the main themes within the definitions and looked at our collective version.
We then went onto discuss and define some of the terminology we had used and considered some of our geographical misnomers.
Then it was onto our changing perceptions of extreme environments. We looked at a range of source material, historic quotes, images, video, art and discussed how our perceptions had changed. (The computer crashed twice! 
). (more…)
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Second pilot lesson but a single. Today we continued to look at examples of extreme environments, we discussed landscape, climate, fauna and flora. We then looked at the distribution of the environments and completed some mapping, along with naming some examples. You should be aware that Tropical Rainforest is not part of the syllabus, but we just like them, and they make an interesting comparison with the other biomes.
Finally, we thought about a definition for the term extreme environment. I have typed these up and they can be viewed here. Please note that these are in ‘ student speak’ and not edited at all. I wanted their immediate reactions, without time for reflection and refinement. From this I have highlighted four themes that run through their own definitions and have devised a class definition. There are also some interesting misconceptions that I’ll tackle as well.
Might be a nice exercise to get your class to critique my students definitions.
On a completely separate note, Big G has produced a webpage about his love of Ben Nevis, which is looking good and can be found here.
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Very tired, but I wanted to post a reflection on my first two lessons so far. I still haven’t had time to post resources; but this will come on Saturday, ready for the new week and for students to use and collaborate online.
We have also decided to write revision notes and podcast summaries each week, something again on the list for the weekend…
Not the best time to start a new course, afternoon on the first day, but despite the heat and the tiredness, the group is lively and insightful. I think it will work 
Whiteboard software wasn’t running, which was a system problem, so not the best start. (more…)
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