Earth Explorers (es)

“Bring the world inside your classroom.”
In our modern, globally interconnected society, understanding the world around us is more important than ever. Online globe and mapping tools aren’t just about geography. “Place” is universal, with cultures and nature connecting us all to the surrounding world.
With online globe and mapping tools, you can learn about diversity across biomes and cities and measure how a river has changed shape over time. In addition, using online globes and maps in classrooms can help visualize abstract concepts across a global canvas, allowing students to connect with the idea of what they learn inside to what they experience in their daily lives, community, and the larger world.

Objectives:

• Identify different continents across the world.
• Construct knowledge of different kinds of landforms on earth such as valleys, mountains etc.
• Design and create a landform prototype.
• Share your doughscapes with the classroom.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to: 

• Get familiar with the different continents across the world. 
• Build knowledge about different types of landforms on the earth.
• Implement their understanding of landforms and create a prototype.
• Share their prototype with peers and get inspired via Doughscapes walk in the classroom.

Resources: 

• Printouts of learner handouts.  
• Devices like tablets/ laptops/Chromebooks/computers for each team. 
• Stable wifi connection.
• Access to Google Earth on each device.

Before the Lesson: 

• For the duration of the entire activity, teamwork is advisable. Teamwork can help your class progress more quickly and learn more effectively. Learners gain an understanding of one another's strengths and how to collaborate.This will help them learn and practice essential social and communication skills. The ideal team size for a class would be three team members per group. You can divide learners into groups of three. For effective team grouping strategies, you can also take help from this link.
• Based on the number of groups in your classroom, keep the required number of learner handouts printouts ready. To create a landform prototype with play dough, You can use different colors of play dough to present mountains and rivers. This will ensure that the learners can use it smoothly during the activity. If your class has a knack for craftwork, this activity could also be conducted with the help of your learners.  
• Based on the number of groups in your classroom, keep devices (tablets or laptops) ready.

Objective:

• Identify different continents across the world.
• Construct knowledge of different kinds of landforms on earth such as valleys, mountains etc.

Activity description:

1.  Begin by sharing with learners that today they would dive deep into the earth’s physical features  and create a prototype for the same. Followed by a presentation of the work they’ve created.  
2. Briefly discuss the following ground rules with the learners to be followed throughout the class: 

Be respectful of one another. Listen to your teammates.

• Raise your hands if you have anything to share.
• Listen attentively and follow instructions.
• Complete tasks in the given time.

Open the floor for questions related to the classroom norms, if any. Also, ask for learners' inputs, if any, to the class norms & with a thumbs up, share their agreement over class norms. 

3. For the entire activity, teamwork is advisable. This will help them learn and practice essential social and communication skills. The ideal team size for a class would be three team members per group. Divide learners into groups of three. 
4. Guide learners through the Roles and responsibilities for the lesson. The following could be the role distribution:

• Project Manager: A project manager would be responsible for helping fellow team members stick to their tasks and ensuring no one has left out the opportunity to practice hands-on and participate in team discussions. 
• Resource Manager: A resource manager would collect and submit resources from resource stations. They shall also ensure optimum utilization of resources takes place.
• Clean up crew: Responsible  for cleaning up the materials and work after the project is completed

It's important to note that when working with very young children, it's essential to keep in mind they have a short span and may need frequent breaks and reinforcement of the instructions.

5. Begin by asking, “How many continents can you locate on the globe”. 

Then apprise them of the task for this section by sharing the project on google earth based on different continents and ask them to explore other continents and learn some fun facts about them. 

Objective: 

• Design and create a landform prototype.

Activity Description:

1. Congratulate learners on completing their first task. This part of the activity is stressed constructing the necessary knowledge before learners embark on their journey of creating a prototype of different kinds of landforms on the earth.
2. Introduce learners to the main activity for the day: Creating a landforms prototype. Explain that with their exploration of the knowledge they gathered. Now they would become an artist and create a prototype. The time limit for this activity would be 30 minutes.
3. Provide learners with the necessary things which are required to create a prototype of the landform:

• A pack of clay
• Scissors
• A pencil
• Cardboard

4. As with any other challenge, this challenge also has a set of rules the learners would adhere to for the successful completion of their project. Walk learners through the following rules and open the floor for feedback, if any: 
5. Discuss with your teammates.
6. Select the type of landform you would like to create a prototype.
7. You can use the following landform for the prototype:

• Mountains
• Valley
• Hills
• Stick to the time limit. 
• Be creative.

5. This lesson section focuses on widening learners’ horizons of landforms that can be made from clay and cardboard. You can take help from slides from the teaching deck to take inspiration from various kinds of landforms prototypes made of clay and cardboard.

 The goal here is to help them reimagine the landforms and create a prototype.

Begin by stating, “What is the major distinction between different types of landforms? Why do people prefer to live on plains then on mountains ?” Now pause for learner response or questions, if any. 

Objective: 

Share your doughscapes with the classroom.

Activity description:

1. Congratulate learners on creating a house prototype. You can ask a series of reflective questions below to help learners reflect on their work:
   1. Which type of landform did you choose and why? 
   2. What inspired you to make this landform? 
   3. What colors did you choose for your playdough to represent mountains and rivers?
   4. What did you discuss with your teammates while creating the landform?  

1. The facilitator asks learners to present their creations ( slide 19 )and let the class guess the Landform prototype they have created.
   1. Learners go through the presentation guidelines ( pg 2 of student’s handout) and present taking help from supplement questions from the presentation template.
   2. Towards the end, teams could open the floor for feedback on how they could further refine their prototype.