So far this blog has covered the basic science behind climate change and given a foundational overview of the factors contributing to it. The past few days I have been observing Geography lessons in a secondary and whilst there I have been thinking how I would teach this subject in particular. One fact I have come to realize is that while many, if not most, students have heard of climate change or global warming, they generally have varying degrees of understanding of the subject. Many are aware of the connection of carbon to climate change; most are aware of the fact that human activities contribute to global warming. With this very cursory knowledge of the subject, there is a lot for students to learn; one cannot assume that students have a solid basic understanding of the topic.
Having been reading and learning about the 'flipped classroom', and having had experience with the teaching style myself, I am curious and interested in applying the concept in my own teaching. I understand that students may not all have access to computers and internet at home, but in an ideal world a school will have a computer lab or laptop cart which a class could use to recreate a type of flipped classroom. Since the level of knowledge of about climate change in a class could vary greatly, I like the idea of setting the students a task of exploring the topic on their own, using the various videos and resources I have found so far and others they themselves might find. This would allow the students to develop ICT skills, research skills, and new literacy skills while reading technical scientific academic writing. It fosters and encourages personal curiosity in a topic, allowing students to dig deeper into the aspects which interest them most. The students are actively involved in accessing, acquiring, and assimilating knowledge for themselves and must take responsibility for their own learning. Whilst exploring climate change and learning about the human contributions to greenhouse gases, students can also begin to form their own opinions and ideas about what could and should be done about this global problem. This encourages creativity and engagement and also requires students to employ other geographical concepts, such as scale.
I have tried to construct this blog with the idea of a flipped classroom in mind, giving a shallow but broad overview into many different aspects of climate change which might introduce these different topics to students for further exploration on their own. I will continue to create my blog posts with this goal in mind.
In exploring this topic I found this website from Vanderbilt University which overviews different teaching approaches which I quite like.
Having been reading and learning about the 'flipped classroom', and having had experience with the teaching style myself, I am curious and interested in applying the concept in my own teaching. I understand that students may not all have access to computers and internet at home, but in an ideal world a school will have a computer lab or laptop cart which a class could use to recreate a type of flipped classroom. Since the level of knowledge of about climate change in a class could vary greatly, I like the idea of setting the students a task of exploring the topic on their own, using the various videos and resources I have found so far and others they themselves might find. This would allow the students to develop ICT skills, research skills, and new literacy skills while reading technical scientific academic writing. It fosters and encourages personal curiosity in a topic, allowing students to dig deeper into the aspects which interest them most. The students are actively involved in accessing, acquiring, and assimilating knowledge for themselves and must take responsibility for their own learning. Whilst exploring climate change and learning about the human contributions to greenhouse gases, students can also begin to form their own opinions and ideas about what could and should be done about this global problem. This encourages creativity and engagement and also requires students to employ other geographical concepts, such as scale.
I have tried to construct this blog with the idea of a flipped classroom in mind, giving a shallow but broad overview into many different aspects of climate change which might introduce these different topics to students for further exploration on their own. I will continue to create my blog posts with this goal in mind.
In exploring this topic I found this website from Vanderbilt University which overviews different teaching approaches which I quite like.
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