"The Lac à l'Eau Claire in Northern Quebec, the rurality of Washington State or the Okavango River separating Namibia from Angola." The website of the European Space Agency is full of snapshots of the Earth taken from space which reveal all the majesty of the Blue Planet. "
Source: La Presse
These fabulous photos, seen from space, will allow you to discover new places for your students. They will be amazed to discover the natural beauties of our planet.
Looking at photographs reveals a great deal of information. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words! This is exactly what the following activities aim to make students aware of. They will allow the very varied images to speak in 4 different ways.
Goals
At the end of the activities, the student will be able to:
- Observe pictures and make deductions.
- Compare the satellite images of the European Space Agency with those found on Google maps.
- Reveal difficult or happy living conditions by observing the elements of a photograph.
- Demonstrate introspection and empathy by imagining yourself in another child's bedroom living in different contexts.
- Parody a student's photograph using drawing software and apply different artistic filters for coloring the photographs.
- Explain how the same means of transport is used in different parts of the world.
Suggested Activities
ACTIVITY 1: Identify the 15 works of art on the globe
In order to compare the quality of satellite images of the European Space Agency with the satellite images obtained on the site of Google maps, display two windows of your web browser on your screen or on your interactive whiteboard.
On PC: Right click on the Windows toolbar, choose "Show windows side by side".
In order to help people appreciate the elements of the territory, here are some questions for your animation in class:
a) In which country, or on which continent, was the photograph taken?
b) What type of relief is there?
c) Which country is in the east? West? South? North?
Write the name of the country as well as the specific location of the photograph in the search engine of Google maps or use the following clickable links, linked to the photographs:
1. Near the Blue Lake stands the tallest tower in the world, Burj Khalifa
2. South America (explore to find the exact spot where the photograph was taken)
3. Catalonia: Photo taken over Spain
4. Chad: Tibesti massif
5. Tsauchab River Namibia
6. Okavango, Angola
7. Dasht-e Kavir, Khorasan, Iran
8. Sermeq Kujalleq, Greenland
9. Grand Canal, Venice, Italy
10. Berlin, Germany
11. Lac à l'Eau Claire, Canada
12. Norway (explore to find the exact spot where the photograph was taken)
13. Betsiboka, Majunga, Madagascar
14. Washington State
15. France
ACTIVITY 2: Diaries of the children of the world
Now invite your students to observe together photos of a completely different kind, taken by the famous photographer James mollison. He captured about thirty pictures showing the living conditions in which some children of the world fall asleep night after night. Suggest that your students write a reflective text, as they would in a diary.
You could print the photographs for distribution to your students to make writing their text easier.
Distribute a copy of the following outline (word format, PDF Format) that they can collect their information individually or in small work teams.
Invite them to introspect and think about the following questions during this literary exercise:
a) In your opinion, in relation to the image that was distributed to you, is this child happy or not? Explain your answer.
b) What are the reasons, or the situations, which can explain the living conditions of this child? Explain your answer.
c) Are your living conditions similar to that of this child? Explain your answer.
d) What do you think could improve the living conditions of this child? Explain your answer.
e) How could you help improve the living conditions of other children on Earth? Explain your answer.
ACTIVITY 3: Parody of famous photos
A fun way to see all the details in a photograph, which has become famous over the years, is to make a parody of it, just like The Simpsons did on the site. Ufunk.
In order to repeat this artistic exercise, invite your students to choose a royalty-free photo from the Flickr site, for example.
Here are the suggested steps for this activity:
a) If desired, impose a search theme with the following keyword: student (Student).
b) Save the desired image on the computer after consulting the terms of use of the image in question. This information can be found at the bottom of each image when viewed solo.
b) Then invite the students to modify the image they have selected in a drawing software, for example on the site Sumo paint, in an iPad application, etc.
c) Ask them to apply different filters on the photograph they have chosen beforehand.
d) Suggest that they add additional elements on the photograph to make their creations even more fun. Your young artists will certainly appreciate the opportunity to create new famous photos!
ACTIVITY 4: A planet by bicycle
Observe the images from a thematic file published on the website of La Presse.
Target a few photographs, more eloquent than the others, expressing the different living conditions of humans and the different uses they make of this very common object that is the bicycle.
For example : image 1, image 2, image 3
Go through the pictures, one at a time, while having your students verbalize the ways in which this type of transport is used around the world. Invite them to create a mind map as they go (using software or simply drawing it on paper). It will summarize the different information that they can pick up simply by observing an eloquent photograph.
For further
Ask your students to do the same exercise as in Activity 1, but using the archive images from the site esa.
Download the app for live broadcast footage.
More about the magazine
On the different types of protection of the rights of images from Flickr, consult Wikipedia (Protection of rights section).
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