THE ICE STUPA GLACIER PROJECT
Last year the city of Lille in France was World Capital Design 2020. You can have a look at all the iniciatives of this extraordinary exhibition here: https://www.designiscapital.com/en/project
Among them, the Ice Stupa Glacier, an ice piramid designed and set up by the engineer Sonam Wangchuck in Ladakh, north of India. It is 20 metres tall and its purpouse is to storage water in the zone.
You can watch and read the project in this BBC presentation: "Can ice stupas solve the water crisis in the Himalayan Desert?" by BBC News.
Meet the engineers who build glaciers from scratch to help isolated villages in Ladakh, the northern most province of India. Sonam Wangchuk’s team hope that when the man-made sculptures melt, they will provide water in times of need.
And then the Ice Sutpa Glacier web page: http://icestupa.org/ where you can also watch this video and enjoy English with another beautiful accent:
Sonam Wangchuk lives and works in the Ladakh region of India, high in the Himalayas. This harsh mountain area is experiencing acute water shortages due to climate change. Sonam, who is an engineer and educator, found a simple but ingenious way to store water using artificial glaciers that will irrigate trees and crops.
THE CROSS CURRICULAR APPEAL
This is an his article about cross curricular topics related to Maths. I reproduce the whole article as it applies to every school subject and its relation to another and how learning is best promoting by adding instead of fragmenting knowledge.
Bringing maths to life with cross-curricular appeal
Mathematics and the Battle of Trafalgar may not have an obvious link but Peter Ransom explains how to use themes to enlighten your class
The idea that mathematics should be taught as short topics in isolation is against my philosophy, as pupils should be aware of how the branches of mathematics interconnect with each other and the whole school curriculum. More teachers are now seeing the virtues of cross-curricular lessons and there are so many historical events and technological and scientific breakthroughs that can be linked to mathematics, which gives more context and relevance to the subject.
I first stumbled across the concept of introducing other subjects into mathematics when I was organising the annual Mathematical Association (MA) conference in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1991. We put on an exhibition about the mathematical tradition in the north of England, which included a display of work by William Emerson, the 18th century mathematician who wrote about the mathematics of sundials.
I soon realised this was an incredibly rich topic to incorporate into the classroom; getting pupils to construct a sundial to help them grasp how geometry was used during a particular period in history. As well as highlighting ancient uses of mathematics, teaching about sundials opened up an opportunity to discuss geographical concepts such as longitude and latitude, as well as scientific lessons on the rotation of the Earth.
These themed lessons were uncommon a couple of decades ago and very few teachers I worked with chose to adopt this cross-curricular approach. Outside school however, among my peers at the MA and the British Society for the History of Mathematics, these ideas were gaining momentum and I picked up plenty of lesson ideas that I could implement in my secondary school classes.
It has always been important for me to make my classes lively and relevant – I drew on subjects that interested me and that I could present in an enthusiastic and knowledgeable way. When training PGCE mathematics teachers, I advise them to explore their interests and the exciting applications that these subjects may have in the classroom.
As long as teachers are explaining the fundamental of mathematics, I see cross-curricular lessons as an enrichment of mathematics. It is also worth taking a more unorthodox approach to lessons in order to engage pupils who have had no previous interest in mathematics.
In terms of the subjects that crossover well with mathematics, the sciences are a clear example. The STEM initiative, which works to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is now playing a big role in education and it is important that pupils understand how these subjects link together.
Drawing on the engineering theme, I have taught lessons about the mathematics that the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel applied when designing the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. I showed pupils copies of his calculations book which included Pythagoras theorem examples, simultaneous equations used to calculate distances and even examples of corrections Brunel had made. These illustrations motivated students to work with equations and calculate the area using the dimensions provided. To capture the pupils' imagination further, I would present to the class in period costume, dressed up as Brunel, which of course drew funny looks from teachers and pupils at first.
There will always be pupils who remain interested in mathematics regardless of the style of lesson but cross-curricular lessons come into their own when sparking interest from children who have struggled. Not every lesson will hit the mark, so collecting feedback from my pupils was a valuable exercise. I would ask them to submit feedback forms explaining which lessons they enjoyed, if the homework was too hard or too easy and any improvements I needed to make.
Inspirations for cross-curricular lessons can come from anywhere, for example landmark anniversaries. A few years ago, on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, I set my pupils the task of writing a battle report for King George III in 1805 using the actual mathematical data that was available. The pupils used statistics to compare sets of data such as the fleet size of Britain, France and Spain, the number of men on each ship and the comparable firepower on board. Analysing the data, the children wrote up their reports as an imaginary adviser to the king explaining the chances of success.
Examples like this bring mathematics to life and while it is ideal to combine other topics covered in the syllabus, it isn't essential. It is more important that the practical examples show pupils how to apply certain mathematical practices rather than just memorising them. I found that this shortened the actual time I needed to spend with them on textbook examples and also helped improve their general knowledge and cultural reference.
My advice to teachers is to remain focused on your professional development. Creating innovative lessons with relevant demonstrations will give you a better chance of keeping the class motivated and raising their aspirations.
Peter Ransom works as an education consultant and part-time lecturer at Bath Spa University and is the president designate of The Mathematical Association. He has 30 years of teaching experience and will be speaking on cross-curricular mathematics at the MA annual conference in April 2013.
Reflection at the farm, by Guillermo Vega
Our food system is inefficient. Billions of animals live lives in deplorable conditions in order to feed us with meat that, to top it all, degrades the environment. Animal protein is an expensive necessity for many. The basis on which Western culture developed. For others it is something else: a serious moral problem that must be tackled.
And then a possible solution emerges: laboratory meat, a supposedly neutral way of continuing to consume it. Many animals will be grateful for the innovation. Technology helps but, once again, it does not make us better. Quite the contrary. What it does give us is the possibility of once again outsourcing our big decisions, of saving ourselves the intellectual effort. Of being a little more and more selfish in a world that is already very selfish.
Technology can help solve animal abuse, or alleviate refugee crises or address famines. Moreover, imagine that a miraculous application could solve the climate crisis. That would be wonderful, of course. But, at the same time, it would be a resounding collective failure: that of not having been able as humans to make the moral effort to put an end to a problem. The human being as a collective would not have been able to make moral progress.
We delegate to progress what we should solve with reflection and humanism. Dealing with the great world issues is, after all, a good opportunity to deal with a good part of our own personal problems. And technology cannot help there. Again, quite the opposite.
Source: ElPAÍS Retina
School Education Gateway belongs to Educational School Gateway, which is Europe's online platform for school education. In another page of this site Erasmus+ Opportunities- you can find three tools and information for schools to prepare Erasmus+ applications:
1. Course catalogue
Catalogue of professional development courses for school teachers and staff.
2. Mobility opportunities
Opportunities for school staff to undertake teaching assignments and job shadowing in a host school/organization abroad.
3. Strategic partnerships
Search for partner schools/organizations across Europe to carry out joint projects that aim at improving standards and the quality of teaching and learning.
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