2x.2 Portfolio project 2010-11: "Green earth"

"Green earth" is the topic for the Portfolio project our school is carrying out this year. Some of your other teachers may be dealing with this topic also in their classes. In English, we are going to learn more about a very interesting problem of far-reaching consequences which global warming has brought about: the relocation of precipitation. With this project I aim to help you improve your scientific literacy (i.e. the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes), which is a competence you are also developing in other subjects. You will:

1. Practise selecting and assessing different sources of information.
2. Speculate on the available data if they are not informative enough to draw conclusions.

3. Explain facts that affect the natural world and predict their potential future development.

4. Analyse existing scientific evidence to evaluate alternative perspectives and their implications.

5. Communicate coherent and reasoned conclusions.

Hopefully, this project will also represent a sensitisation campaign for you and lay the foundations for a more responsible attitude towards climate change.

Before we get into the topic in greater depth, I would like you to answer questions 1 and 2 on the blog:

1. Have you ever heard about the relocation of precipitation before? What do you think this problem is about?
2. Have a look at the map below.


The red area shows the village where I come from, Beniarbeig (Alacant). It's a very small village of barely 2.000 inhabitants very near the coast of Dénia. In October 2007, something very shocking happened that made my village hit the headlines. All of a sudden, my village was on the front page of the most important Spanish newspapers! The set of three photographs below shows snaps of the events. Can you guess what happened? Imagine you are a journalist. Write a short news story of about 80 words for your newspaper.









3. Try to guess the meaning of the underlined words on this post from their context. Then use them in a sentence which is different from the one in this text and translate them into Catalan or Spanish. Use a dictionary only if necessary. We'll correct this exercise in class, so don't post this on the blog.

2x.1 Welcome

Dear 2nd Batxillerat students, welcome to The Flying Beetle!

To start off, I'd like to explain how we're going to use this blog as a learning tool. Unfortunately, you don't have regular English classes in the computer rooms, so we'll use the blog as a tool for distance learning. In the "Useful links" section I have listed different websites which I consider to be of your interest. This section also contains the websites that I recommend you visiting in class. It's constantly being updated, so check for updates from time to time. I hope you have started using some of these links to enhance your learning and complement your classes at school.


Moreover, I will start posting entries very soon. As you know, we're going to participate in the Portfolio project that our school is carrying out. This year's topic is "Green earth" and you're going to deal with that topic in different subjects from different perspectives. Your first task on this blog will consist of learning about your Portfolio topic. I am currently working with Vicent from the Biology department on a couple of sessions about the topic which I have chosen for you: "The relocation of precipitation as a consequence of global warming." I hope you enjoy working online and learn a lot from this digital experience.