Olga Lucia Torres Ladino.
Production: In the production stage, the students engage in exercises or
activities based on the taught subject without the guidance of the ESL
teacher
Taken from: https://www.educaciontrespuntocero.com/noticias/que-es-trabajo-colaborativo-aula/ Phase 1.
The group is divided into pairs according to
the number of students.
Phase 2.
The teacher distributes bibliographic cards
so that the students create a brochure on the theme "Universe" where
they will describe some things that compose it. (Galaxies, planets, stars,
living beings, among others).
Phase 3.
Each group will take turns reading and
explaining their brochure, using consistent and clear language on the topic.
Phase 4.
To finish, the teacher will give the students reading about the origin of the universe, which helps the student expand
their vocabulary and learn new structures.
The Origin of the Universe
The most accepted theory about the Origin of
the Universe is the Big Bang theory, this theory says that in the beginning the
entire Universe was concentrated in an infinitely dense and hot point where
neither time nor space existed. For some reason, it exploded and began to
expand, from 13,000 million years ago to the present. With this explosion, time
and space were created and the laws of Physics that govern all the processes of
the Universe arose.
Despite the fact that the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted by the
scientific community, there are discussions about whether the Universe will
continue to expand forever or if, on the contrary, it will compress again at
some point.
The universe is all the things that we can
touch, feel, perceive, measure, or detect. From living beings, planets, stars,
galaxies, dust clouds, light, and even time. Before the birth of the universe,
there was no time, space, or matter. All that is, has been, and will be in the
universe. In the universe, you can find objects such as planets, stars, nebulae,
and galaxies.
Planets are very small compared to stars,
they orbit around one or more stars forming planetary systems and do not emit
light. Stars are large clumps of matter that are at very high temperatures and
are much larger than planets. Its main component is hydrogen, and it is said that
"we are all stardust" since stars are furnaces in which all the
elements that makeup matter are formed. Nebulae are regions of the
interstellar medium made up of gases as well as chemical elements in the form
of cosmic dust, they occupy gigantic regions of space, and it is believed that
millions of stars are born inside. Finally, there are the galaxies, which are
formed by stars that, although they are gigantic and are separated by an
unimaginable distance from each other, group together and revolve around a
center of gravity and, when rotating, acquire spiral or globular shapes. Our
sun is part of the galaxy called "The Milky Way". When talking about the
universe, several questions arise, such as: How big is it? Does it have limits?
Is it infinite or finite? What is "beyond"? Some scientists have
entered a debate to see who is right, but in the end, no agreement is reached,
by definition it can only be said that there is nothing. Only within the
universe do time and space exist. The universe is so large that it cannot be
measured with the typical measurement units known as the Kilometer, Mile, or
Feet, for this other appropriate measurements are used such as Astronomical
Unit (AU), which is equivalent to the measured distance between the Earth and
the Sun, about 150,000,000,000 km. A light year is a distance that light
travels in a year, this is used to measure the distance between stars.
Some stars
have planets orbiting around them. This is called the Planetary System. The Solar
System is our Planetary System, which is made up of a star. which has been
called "SUN" and the eight planets that revolve around it represent
slightly elliptical orbits. These are classified depending on their distance from the
sun, as they are:
- Satellites,
are those small bodies that revolve around the planets, as the Earth has a
satellite which is known as the "Moon".
- Dwarf
planets, are rocky bodies that also describe orbits around the sun, the
best known is Pluto, which was previously considered a planet and is located on
the outskirts of the Solar System.
- Asteroids
and Meteorites, asteroids are very small rocky bodies that wander through
space, they do not have the spherical shape of the planets, which is due to the
fact that they have their own gravity. The largest asteroids measure about 9oo km in diameter
and the smallest ones barely reach the size of a stone, these smaller ones are
called Meteoroids. Many asteroids head straight for the planets, when they
enter the atmosphere at high speed, air friction causes them to crush and
ignite, leaving a bright trail in the sky and this is known as a shooting star. Many times,
the friction with the atmosphere causes it to disintegrate and if a part
manages to reach the ground, the rocky fragment will be called a meteorite. The
Sun covers 99.8% of the mass of the Solar System and has a diameter of 1.4 million
km. Approximately the Sun is 75% hydrogen, which constitutes the fuel of the
reactions of nuclear fusion that make it shine and radiate heat, these reactions
cause hydrogen to become helium, which has been the second most important
component of the sun, carbon, and iron can also be found in small amounts.
The Solar
System is made up of 8 planets and these are divided into two
well-differentiated groups that are separated by the asteroid belt.
1.
Inner, rocky,
minor, or terrestrial planets: They are Mercury, Venus; Earth, and
Mars. These are the
closest to the sun, they are the smallest and are made of solid and dense
materials, and are characterized by having a thin atmosphere, except Mercury.
• Mercury: It is the smallest planet and the closest to
the Sun. Its name is due to the fact that it is the richest in metals in the
Solar System. Being so close to the Sun and not having an atmosphere,
its daytime temperature can reach 430°C and -170°C at night.
• Venus: It is the
planet that is closest to Earth and is almost the same size. Its atmosphere
is so heavy and thick that the pressure on the planet's surface can be equal to
that found 1,000 meters underwater on Earth. Its temperature reaches 480 ° C and is full of huge
active volcanoes.
• Earth: It is
located 150 million km from the Sun and is the only planet (as far as is known)
that has life. Its main characteristic is that it has liquid water and its own satellite: The Moon.
• Mars: This is the closest to Earth, although it is a
little smaller in size. It is said that in the past this planet had water. Its
temperature is too low and only frozen water has been found in the polar caps. It is also
known as "the red planet" since its surface is red because it is rich
in oxidized iron.
2.
Outer,
gaseous, major, or jovian planets: They are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
They are planets of large dimensions and low density. They are made
of gases and light elements.
• Jupiter: It is
the largest in the entire Solar System, it is composed of hydrogen and helium. It has more
than 60 moons orbiting around it.
• Saturn: It is best known for having rings that
revolve around it. At first glance, it seems to have 7 rings, but in reality, it
has hundreds of smaller rings.
• Uranus: It is
formed mainly by hydrogen and methane. Its most peculiar characteristic is the fact that it is
tilted on its trajectory, that is, it rolls like a ball in the plane of its
orbit.
• Neptune: It is
surrounded by a system of 6 rings and 8 satellites. The blue color
of this is due to an atmosphere very rich in methane. All the planets of the
Solar System are characterized by making two movements at the same time:
Rotation, they rotate on themselves, some doing it faster than others. In translation,
they move drawing slightly elliptical orbits around the Sun.