Lesson Plan Background: Pollution and Global Climate Change

Assessments are the way to find out if learning has actually taken place. Enabling us, as tutors, to see if objectives have been met.

The assessments have been done during and after the lesson in a variety of ways; verbal response, written response, pair and group work, and making posters as a visual outcome.

From the very beginning of the course, teachers should begin to analyse their learners through initial assessment methods. The assessments best suited to guide improvements in student learning are quizzes, tests, writing assignments, and other assessments such as a group activity. These can easily give the teacher/tutor an insight into the learning needs of the learners. Also

Assessment, both formative and summative, plays a significant part in the learning experience as it determines progression and enables learners to demonstrate that they have achieved their desired learning outcomes.

“Assessments should be a regular process; it might not always be formalised, but you should be observing what your learners are doing, asking questions and reviewing their progress throughout their time with you”.

Before any activity, the pupil will need to know what they are going to learn, why they are learning it and how the assessment will take place. The teacher will discuss these with the pupils before the session and when each group of children sit down to start the activity they will be explained to them again. As the pupils get used to assessing their own work, they will find it easier to look at their own work naturally. As well as the objective for the activity, the pupils will need to know their own personalised learning goal so that they can integrate them. One example of how we do this at our setting is by having a learning activity

I assess my students at regular intervals. Every time I ask a question to an individual or to a class I am assessing their knowledge and understanding.

The function of assessment in learning and development is to provide a measurable way of planning and supporting students’ progress. Assessment is carried out by means of checks and tests carried out throughout the course. Assessors should provide feedback throughout ensuring that learning is occurring and the learner is at the correct level. It is also important that assessor’s decisions are also consistently reviewed and internally and externally verified.

Assessment is carried out through checks throughout the course, and at end of course. activities can help the learner to see their development whilst allowing the Assessor to give valuable feedback when appropriate. This is to measure the learners understanding of the subject set by the criteria.

Assessment is often thought of as a punitive exercise. But the purpose of assessment is to ensure that students meet specific standards of progress and to rectify learning deficits before a child falls too far behind. Assessment can also identify a child's strengths as well as his or her weaknesses. As well as comparing the child's performance with his or her peers, the teacher can assess specific learning needs, learning styles, interests, aptitudes, and other critical components of the child's developing learning personality.

We will then add various other living and non-living components and ask the students each time. Afterwards, we will explain the concept of an ecosystem in further detail. The next activity comprises the bulk of the lesson and asks students (split into four groups) to draw the ideal town on a large piece of paper with a habitat on it (containing a mountainous area, a small stream, and a larger river). The town’s natural resources must provide a source of food, shelter, and energy. Once the students have finished their town creations, we will hang them and have students explain them. Next, we will hand out greenhouse gas explanation sheets and go over some of the basic types of emissions, and discuss which ones might be produced by each town. This segment of our lesson is particularly important because it gets students thinking about how the actions of their local communities can have a big impact on the environment. In our last lesson component we will show students pictures of different ecosystems and have them decide whether these sources contribute to pollution, and if so, how they can be reduced. This will serve as both a summative assessment of students’ knowledge and a call to action to help protect the local environment.

For centuries, production and absorption of carbon dioxide was in balance with the ecosystem however, in the last century, human activity has caused detrimental effects to the earth’s atmosphere due to the consequential changes in earth’s natural feedback mechanism. This problem ultimately originated from the industrial revolution in the 18th century where as a result caused the constant production and burning of fossil fuels which has presently caused the warming of earth’s surface. This is ultimately a result of by the greenhouse effect “…which is caused by the interaction between earth’s atmosphere and incoming radiation from the sun.” Greenhouse gases primarily consist of carbon dioxide however others such as “…water vapour, methane, and nitrous oxide…” are also associated to the greenhouse effect. Scientifically, “solar radiation passes through the atmosphere to the surface of earth, where it is absorbed and then radiated upward as heat” is the result of the high emission of greenhouse gases. The most substantial and common way of emission is through the burning of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. Therefore, human activities over the past century has ultimately caused the more recent problem of the effects global warming is posing to our ecosystem and planet.

Even though many people do not believe in global warming or the fact that pollution contributes to global warming, the author can provide evidence of this pollution in the air, water, and soil by using scientific studies. With our assigned readings we saw just that. Many of the authors try to make the same point, just with different approaches, like how the environment is damaged and how that damage affects us.

Ecosystems are essential to the sustenance of humanity as they provide us with many useful services like food, energy, water and recycling. (Benton et al., 2007)

The second learning objective that I learned more about this semester was how to “explain the ecological embeddedness of society and how it had changed overtime.” For many years, I have just assumed that our environment has always been a semi-important topic in many societies for centuries. By reading the articles assigned at the beginning of the semester, writing the papers on the questions from the Take Home Exam 1, and even through the quizzes that tested my knowledge on the topics, I could better understand how vital the environment has been on many societies throughout time.