3. Using newspaper articles to stimulate discussion
Most pupils are interested in what is happening around them and using local resources such as newspapers or radio can help to enhance your lessons.
The purpose of the Key Activity is to encourage pupils to think about how global weather changes can affect their local context, and to introduce them to the idea of global warming as a possible explanation of changes in the weather. In Case Study 3, the teacher used local news items as a starting point for teaching about the water cycle.
Once pupils are able to see the links between events, you are beginning to develop their critical thinking skills. Such insights will help them to make sense of the ever-changing world that they live in.
Case Study 3: Using local newspapers to introduce the water cycle
There had been lots of discussion about water in the local newspapers over the past week. Water rationing has been introduced by the electricity and water utility, Electrogaz, due to declining levels of water in the dams at Burera and Ruhondo in the northern part of Rwanda. The electricity supply has also been declining, making it necessary to introduce load shedding. There was crop failure in some parts of the country.
Gahima saw the opportunity to discuss issues about water supply with his class. He wrote this question on the board: ‘Where does all the rain go when the ground dries?’ and he then asked each group of pupils to talk about this for ten minutes. During this time, he went around the groups and encouraged everyone in each group to contribute their ideas.
Then Gahima gathered his class round him and asked them to take turns to share their ideas. Together the class build up the understanding of the water cycle (see Resource 4: The water cycle).
Gahima finished by drawing a diagram of the water cycle on the board and asking pupils to copy the diagram and label it. To check that they had understood properly what the diagram was explaining, he devised a series of questions to ask the pupils.
Key Activity: Global warming
Read Resource 5: Global warming articles before the lesson.
Divide the class into small groups and then read the articles to the class or give each group a copy to read together.
Explain to your pupils about soil erosion, its causes and consequences (see Resource 6: Soil erosion in Rwanda).
Ask each group to produce a poster or a short play to answer the following:
What causes soil erosion?
What effects will soil erosion have on agricultural activity?
What could we do to slow down global warming?
How will you ask pupils to evaluate their work?
You may want to share your pupils’ work on global warming with the school in an assembly.
2. Working in groups to investigate pollution
