3º British: Ávila, a sustainable city

Have you ever think in ruling a city? Now it’s your opportunity! :) You can determine now the route Ávila will take in becoming the most environmentally friendly, safe, and sustainable it can be!

 

Firstly remember the key words: Sustainability is the way to secure the QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE FUTURE OF ALL INHABITANTS OF A CITY. It is not only about renewable energies and ecology, it is also about smart (tech) cities, about safety and about total and equal access to health, culture & leisure facilities.

 

How can you do it? Each member of the group will become one of the four Sustainability Experts, completing the urban design from an expertise point of view:

Renewable Energy Consultant

Public Transportation Manager

Accesibility Supervisor

Waste Management Officer

 

Roles decided and shared, now write a report with 10 ideas (explained as complete as possible) to improve the sustanaibility of Ávila. In that report you must incluye, at least, these requirements:

• One idea linked to energetical sources
• Two proposals linked to environment (eg. waste management, pollution, street lights,  green spaces, etc.)
• One idea about transport and mobility

Of course, in your report you HAVE TO include also some pictures and obviously also your street plan! Google maps will be a basic tool in this activity. If you, for example, want to create a solar pannels power station, you must point in the map (screenshot) where are you planning to locate it and why.

 

As you know well your place and are quite aware of what Ávila could need, you will have only one week for doing this activity. Communication, cooperation, collaboration and a bit of creativity are vital to making this research process a success!  

When finish, as usual, send it to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es in pdf format. This work will be part of the score at the end of the term. If you fail to finish them or you give it out of date, the mark will be a 0 for this work.

 

Here are some additional documents and links that can help you get started with your project design:

What's a Sustainable City, Anyway? Article by James Elsen, CEO of Sustain Lane

Safe cities for Women (United Nations Program)

European Disability Strategy

Case study: el Pris (Tenerife) 

Accesibilidad Global (in Spanish): legislation & glossary.

And you can always remember the example of Curitiba (Brasil)

 

Enjoy it! And... good luck! 

1º British: Terracotta Warriors of Xian

Welcome time-traveling students! You have chosen to research a fascinating topic that is still standing from the days of Ancient China.  This is a double-task activity that can be done individually or in groups (maximun, 3 people). When finish, send an email with your work to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es.  

First, research!. You have to do a presentation (prezi or pdf format, no other formats will be accepted) about Qin Xi Huang and his country. Items you MUST include:  

1. Map of Ancient China
2. Portrait and short biography of Qin Xi Huang
3. How was culture and society on those times?
4. The achievements of Emperor Qin Xi Huang (1): the Great Wall
5. The achievements of Emperor Qin Xi Huang (2): the Terra Cotta Warriors.  This is the most important part so try to do your best and do a complete research: when and why were they built? Where are they located? How are they made of? Who discovered them and when? etc.

To start with, you may find additional information in the following links:

Qin Dynasty (Wikipedia) It is only an introduction to the topic, but you ought to visit other (more accurate) websites like the Met Museum or the China Highlights; You can also visit  some touristical pages, such as or travel Guide .

You can add maps, portraits, photos... anything that you think is relevant. You have to elaborate your own writting; copy/paste is not allowed and it would mean a penalization on your mark. 

Second: oral speak at class! Turn yourself into an historian and teach us all you know about Qin Xi Huang and his terracotta warriors! (Duration average: 5-8 minutes). Of course, if you are doing the task in groups, ALL the members of the team HAVE TO talk. Cooperation and the use of appropiate vocabulary will be also keep in mind. 

As usual, this work is mandatory and it will be part of the score at the end of the term. If you fail to finish it or you give it out of date, the mark will be a 0. 

Enjoy the work and good luck! :)

2º British: World travellers in Medieval Times.

Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Zheng He are some of the most important travellers of all times but... who is the greatest one? Would you like to find it out? Would you like to discover their adventures? This is your oportunity!

First of all, let's have a revision about the origin of the Silk trade route though this article by Geografía Infinita (in Spanish).

This is a double-task activity and can be done individually or in groups (maximun, 4 students). First, do an online research and prepare a presentation (pdf or prezi; no other format would be accepted) with the following 7 topics:

1. Short biographies: write a short bio of each historical character (maximum: 10 lines per character). Add also their portraits.

2. Why travelling? Explain what was the main target of their travels: Bussiness? Holidays? Geographical explorations? Militar conquest?

3. Routes: How old were them when they began their journeys? How long did the journeys take? Who did the longest travel? Which countries did they visit? (Yes, in this question you can just add a map...)

4. Primary sources: find some texts from their original books. Choose one extract from it (In your presentation you have to include the text, the chapter it belongs to and the country it is talking about). Them explain why you have chosen that text in particular.

5. Deep study of the place: from the text you have chosen in the previous section, do a deeper study of the area nowadays: Are the cities mentioned on the text still existing? What does the landscape look like nowadays in this area? What differences do you observe between the original description and nowadays situation? You can add images and photos.

6. Imagine you are a young explorer. Use the Internet to research a country that you would like to visit. In a short essay (about 15-20 lines), describe the country, the people, and the sights you will see in this country.

7. Opinion: after studying these three historical characters, which one do you think that is the greatest explorer? Why?

Here you have some links to start:

Admiral Zheng He

Marco Polo (in Spanish)

Ibn Battuta (in Spanish)

When finish, send an email with your work to acarriles@educa.jcyl.es. 

Second: oral talk at class! Turn yourself into an historian and teach us all you know about them! Required duration: 10-15 minutes. Of course, if you are doing the task in groups, ALL the members of the team HAVE TO talk. Cooperation and the use of appropiate vocabulary will be also keep in mind. 

This is a mandatory activity and you will receive a mark for it. Of course, cooperation, task-sharing and team-effort will be taken into consideration. If you fail to do it, do it out of time or just copy&paste from internet, you will have a 0.

Are you ready? Go on, enjoy... and good luck! :)