Water is Life

Lesson Plan for the MOOC “STEM IS EVERYWHERE”

Teacher Tiziana Angiolini

Engage

The Teacher of English introduces the topic of water and asks the students to express their opinion on the issue of water by presenting this short sentence :

“Water is life, and clean water means health”

This is a quotation by a famous actress

"Audrey Hepburn Quotes." BrainyQuote.com. BrainyMedia Inc, 2018. 24 November 2018. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/audrey_hepburn_700248

They are asked to listen to the poem “ WATER” and read it online

https://www.poemhunter.com/poems/water/page-1/7876237/

This poem by Bob Blackwell can be downloaded and used for reflections by the students who will brainstorm the key words related to the issue of water and the problems related to the lack of water in many countries in the world

Hep for using the most appropriate lexis to present the ideas and the topic

To help the students to work on the issue and the debate about the topic they are given an online tool, a visual dictionary which can help them to work on the words related to it

http://www.ikonet.com/en/visualdictionary/earth/environment/

Quiz online

They are given a quiz to do online and to reflect on it:

http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/Games/Quizzes/Minis/Water.html

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Explore

The students are asked to work in groups at school and from home and they will have to explore some interesting resources which can help them reflect on the topic: they will use their pcs, their tablets and smartphones to get access to resources online

Article online

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/18/are-we-running-out-of-water

Ted Talks

https://www.ted.com/talks/lana_mazahreh_3_thoughtful_ways_to_conserve_water

Ted Resources

https://blog.ed.ted.com/2017/08/08/5-ted-ed-lessons-about-water/

Some information about Italy

Italy: what’s going on?

https://www.climatechangepost.com/italy/fresh-water-resources/

Online quiz with Kahoot

https://kahoot.com/explore/earth-science-water/

Questions for the students

What did you learn?

Were you surprised ?

What’s wrong with our behaviour?

Are human beings aware of the shortage of water?

Follow up discussion

The students will discuss the issue in class and in their groups and will have to work with the science and also the maths teacher to present their ideas and what solutions might help them better the world

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Explain

The aim of our Mission- let’s use water in the best way

Our Project Work will be focussed on our bad habits and how we do need to re-think our way of using water. The object of our work is on working on us, our community, and on how we use water in the wrong way. We would like you to develop your plan for reducing the use of water

Before starting working in your group think about the following questions:

How much water does your family use?
What kind of water do you use?
Do you buy bottled water?
In which daily life activities do you use water?
How can you cut on the cost of water in your family?
Why is there a water shortage in our country?
What do you know about the water shortage in other countries?

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Apply

Work in groups and carry out a research on the use of water:

Follow these steps:

Work on a survey by getting information about people’s ideas about using water and their habits: you can use GOOGLE FORMS to get the information . Write your questions online and then share the link among the people you know, remember you need to have a great database to work on

https://www.google.com/forms/about/

Present the data you have based on the answers you got
Work online and write your group presentation of the data you have collected
Present your research online by using a shared Google-doc/ Google Slide or any other document you would like to present to your teachers and class
If you have some good illustrators you might use your friends’ images to add content to your research and give credits to their images

You can also use some free online tools for creating comics: here is an example which I have created for you:

https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=32875023C2586948

This is a collaborative task and you will have to work online while working also from home.

Each group is asked to add the presentation link or the embedded presentation to a Padlet/website which have been created online by the students together with teachers of the class.

The tech-savy will use a Google site to post their tasks and write about what they have learnt.

https://sites.google.com

The teachers will provide the feedback online and will evaluate the final output by using a shared rubric created with the student

Link to web tools : you will need to create your own account and work together as a group

https://it.padlet.com/

https://www.thinglink.com/login

After you have finished your task we would like you to share it on TWITTER or on some social MEDIA.

Remember that your research is part of the first activity of our mission.

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Reflect

Now that you have worked on your research it is time to work on an ACTION PLAN:

Work online and in class and write a collaborative document in which you think about what Italian students and their families can do in order to use water in the best way
The students who love writing can share their own poem or a lyrics about WATER
Create a short video to be uploaded on VIMEO or YOUTUBE and create a text in English together with some good images

You can use these tools, you need to create an account for the first one:

https://lumen5.com/

https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Remember to choose images that can be used in your videos and always provide credit.

You can find free images online :

https://pixabay.com/

https://unsplash.com/

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