Transcription
Okay class, so we're going to be working on uh terrain terms today. These are land forms. Uh, first of all, uh, the root word of terrain is terra, uh, in Latin. What is terra? Does anybody know? Ruthie: Earth. Very good, Ruthie. Okay, earth. So these are the earth terms, and particularly the ups and downs of the earth.
So now let's do the pronunciation. Pronunciation: mountain. Good. Mountain peak, summit. And they have a comma between them, so that means they're synonyms or synonymous. And so if I say summit and you say mountain peak, we are both right. Okay. Next, slope. And there are two kinds of slopes, basically: steep and gentle. Very good. Next, ridge. Uh, next, saddle, pass, and gap. Very good. They're synonyms. Mountain range. And there's no comma, so it's a two-term word. Then, two-word term. Two-word term. Thank you. Valley. Good. And mesa. Good. Plain. Good. Plateau. Good. And then canyon and gorge. And they are synonyms. Good.
Uh, okay. I'm going to point to a mountain peak to start out, and then you take turns. This is a mountain peak. And if you can say the whole sentence, that would be best. You said, "Choose a peak, point to it. You'll be first, Tristan." All right. This is a mountain peak. Good. This is a mountain peak. Good. This is a mountain peak. Good. Um, I don't want to cause controversy, but this is a mountain. Why might there be controversy? It's kind of isolated from the other mountains. How is it different from all the others that we've touched so far? No white cat. Yeah, there's no snow on it. Apparently, you don't have to have snow to be a mountain. So let's go another round again. More mountains. Is this a mountain peak? What do you think, guys? I think this is a mountain peak. Shorter, snowless, short, snowless mountain peak. Very nice.
Um, now, mountain climbers, they frequently like, if they wanted to walk from, let's say, this peak to this peak, they who would not like climb all the way down somewhere and then climb up again? They walk this kind of connector. So this is our next turn. This is a ridge. Your next, Tristan. This is a ridge. Oh, nice. Um, this is a ridge. Great. This is a ridge. Great. Um, this is a ridge. Mostly up to Tristan's peak. Let's go around again. No more. I think there are some. Yes, there's one. And they don't have to. They could, they could start low and then rise high. They don't have to connect two peaks. Actually, ridges are ways to get up to peaks also. So if you can find one of those, uh, this is a ridge. Okay, good. This is a ridge. Take it up. Yes, that's a good one. And this is a ridge. Yeah, let's find more. Excellent. Um, good. This is a ridge. Very nice.
So you guys have done ridges. You've done, um, there are slopes that make up a mountain. Like, for example, here is a slope, and it's kind of steep, actually. There is a steep slope. So Tristan, you go. Anyways, awesome. Good. Um, would this be a slope? What do you think, guys? You should say though, out loud, because nodding your head won't be picked up. I think, is it a steep slope or a gentle slope? Do you think? Yes, it's definitely more gentle than this one or all the others. Name it. Okay, so back to Lila. You want to give it? Steep, gentle. Okay. I would say this is a slope that starts steep and gets gentle. Let's see. What are we up to? Let's do some more. Um, you know, right up here, somebody called this one a ridge, like from here to here. But there's something special about this one. And maybe Tristan's, you're close there. Fill it with your fingertip. What does it feel like? Is it no fingertip? Not that it's flatter. It's flatter. Is it more square or more rounded? Square or the edges around? Yeah, it's all rounded like that. So this, well, we'll get to. Let's just note that it's, it's a little different because there's something else we should get to next, which is, let's go to valley. And I'm going to choose. This is a valley. And I have to move my thing, my pointer around because there's all kinds of slopes. Okay, very nice, Tristan. Valley. Yeah. And that extends. You walk the floor of that valley, Ruthie, and see how far you can go. Sometimes we call that Death Valley down there. Very hot and dry. And, um, it's just, it's desert, and people die there. And hence the name. Yes, I was going to say this one, but it's connected. Technically, that's taken already. Well, no, I just think it's part of it. It's very interesting that you pointed out. You could, you could just walk Death Valley and get in there. Or who knows, the mapmaker might have given it a separate name. What, what do you think? What name they might have given it by its shape or something? Something. Canyon. Well, since we're on, yeah, it could be a canyon. But since we're on valleys, they, they might call it, uh, Lila's Valley. That's cool. Yeah, why not? So we have Tristan's Valley, Ruthie's Valley, Lila's Valley, Professor's Valley. This valley is so big, you, you can't even see it. It's between these mountains, down these slopes, across flat area, and up here. Everything in here, they call it like Valle Grande, the Grand Valley, or Central Valley. Something really important and big. It describes a lot of the geography here.
Now, now we come back to this issue of Tristan felt, said with some prompting, that it was round. And, uh, if you wanted to go from this valley to this valley by horse, Tristan, why don't you take the trip with your, with your stick? How would you proceed? Yeah, you went over the rounded part. How would it be if you had tried to go over this part? No horse's four legs get caught on this side, the hind leg on that side, making a terrible squealing sound. Not a demand. So now, as you pass from this valley to this valley, you're going over a three synonyms. Yeah. So you can see why it's a pass. Why might it be a saddle? Horse pass. Yeah. But also look at the shape of it. Yeah, it's kind of like you put one leg on each side. It's like a saddle. And, um, as, as far as that gap goes, what's in the gap between the two? [Music] It's more like a gap between here and here. It's more like, um, a pass between the two valleys, isn't it? Okay, this is good. Getting a lot of geography done. See if we skipped anything. Oh, here's one. This would be what, like peak, ridge, peak, ridge, peak? Is that round or is it edgy, Tristan? Yeah. Right in between these two. What do you think? There's an edge here, but this part's kind of round. So it's kind of a steep pass. All right. So anyway, peak, ridge, peak, ridge, peak, ridge, peak, ridge. Peak. That whole long string of mountains and ridges is all right. So where else do we have mountain ranges besides this one here? Here, you run your stick along. So we can see. Yeah, very good. Um, very nice. Any more mountain ranges? Yeah. Um, let's stop and do a little compass work, and then we could name these accordingly. Perhaps. Should I stop the video? No, let it go on. This compass, I don't know if you can see this, guys. There's a red needle there. Can you see it? Now, it's glare. I can't see it. I'm going to turn this until north a litter and see. When you, when you take a compass out of your pocket or whatever, you lay it down. The red needle is now pointing toward S W, which means southwest. So what you do is you just turn the compass underneath that red needle, which is now not behaving correctly. What happened there? Now it's swinging. It stopped. Development. This is, I don't know what to say. All right. So now that we're going again, um, even though this may not line up with what we know to be north, let's assume the compass is telling us the truth. And here I'm pointing the way the needle is going. Can you all point in the direction of north? That's it. Lila's got it. Okay, let's do south with your sticks. Okay, good. Now let's point west. Okay. And east. Okay. Okay, now let's do the intermediate directions. In between north and east, what's that one called? Northeast. How about opposite side? Between the S and the W. Okay. Now we have between N and W, and then between S and E. All right. Let's name these ranges. This range right here, by the compass, might be the southeast range. All right. Let's try this one. What about this by the compass? Yes, yes. Northeast range. How about this one? Southwest. Yeah. Southwest range. And there really isn't a range down this end. All right. This is good. I, I, the compass, the can be become part of our vocabulary as we go along with the land forms. So this was useful to do. Um, how about foreign language? Mesa means what in Spanish? Oh, it means French. Seriously? Yeah, my old school had some very bad Spanish teachers, so I learned nothing, apparently. Yeah, this never happens with my students at City College. They all know mesa like a table is flat. And, um, you can often spot them. Let's supposing you're driving through Death Valley and you look up, and you look up here to the southeast, it's all very flat. Yeah, this is mesa land up here. Isn't that plateau? You know, these terms overlap so much. Let's, let's also talk about this as a plateau. It's not, it's not about its flatness. It's about the fact that it's elevated. It's up higher. For example, Death Valley is not a plateau. This is a plateau. Whole mountain ranges are built on top of plateaus. So, for example, if you're looking up at these amazing mountains from right here, maybe they rise 15,000 feet up, but you're already standing at 10,000 feet. And this is true in Nepal, in the Himalayas. You're standing on ground level, which is the Tibetan Plateau, and you look 15,000 feet ago. And so plateau is a hard one to show because it can be as big as several countries all at once. Uh, canyon and gorge. I'll point to one, and then you guys see if you can point. Here is a canyon or gorge. Here. Excellent. Um, here. Good. Canyon. Yes. And these, of course, are all interconnected. Even this one. How about this canyon here? It connects to this, this major one. Everything seems to connect. Um, you can also, well, go ahead, Tristan. See if you can find some more. Now, you might say that the thing about a canyon is it's got very steep walls, and they're somewhat close together. Um, how about down in Death Valley? Anybody find any canyons down there? Yeah, I'd say both. This one is even better than this. This is a little far apart for the walls, but this one's definite. More. Yeah. Mercy. Another. Um, yes. All right. Now, one which we didn't do yet. I'll do a piece of it. This is a plane. Tristan, you guys. [Music] Yeah, this is a very sloppy plane right here. A little sloppy. It's still a plane. I'm just applying the adjective just because I think we could try something. Now, these are called, well, there's higher than statements, and then we'll try some lower than statements, and we'll try to kind of both of them. Um, this mountain peak is higher than the bottom of this valley. This ridge is higher than this. Oh, yes. This mountain peak is higher than this. Nice. By the way, if you ever get to a point like in the lesson where you're not sure what to say and you don't want to go, you can pass. And then whenever you say, like, "Oh, I got one," just raise your hand and get called. This magic peak is higher than this black toe. Is it flat on top? Good. Uh, I guess I can do one. This mountain peak is higher than the bottom of this valley. Maybe. Good. This mountain range is higher than this valley. Very nice. Let's do, let's do lower than statements. I can do that. Okay. This canyon is lower than this mountain peak. Good. This, um, plateau is lower than this mountain range. Gorge is lower than this. Good. This canyon is lower than this mountain. Good. Now I'm going to combine the higher than and lower than statements. This mountain peak is higher than this gorge, and it's lower than this mountain peak. This mountain range is higher than this. Which is awesome. Now, that's debatable because this part might stick up, but then again, mine was debatable too. Very interesting one. Um, this mountain bridge is good. This valley is lower than this sound peak, but this mountain peak is no, no, you have to go back to the valley. Now, what's the valley higher than? It's higher than this canyon. Yeah. Yes. All right. Just, just on this last thing, why do you, why would we do higher than and lower than statements? What is it? What does it do for, for the student? [Music] It's about three-dimensional stuff. Yes. Particularly which dimension? Not length, not width. Height. And it's actually something they call relative height. Such as there is no thing, no such thing as a high mountain. There's only a mountain that's higher than something else, lower than something else. It's relative. Um, any other reason to do this besides teaching relative elevation? It's fun, and you used all the terms. You reviewed them all. It's very interactive. It's interactive. You see what someone else might take your thing, right? And then you're out of luck. And you get choice, right? You get to choose which one you're going to say. So you don't get put on the spot quite so heavily. You can choose it, and you can pass. This, maybe in general, um, this is a discussion I would have with, um, the graduate and undergraduate students that I'm teaching on the very first session. I do this. So I'll have it with you instead, and they'll listen. Okay, I taught the lesson, and yet it wasn't like a normal lesson. How did you learn these terms? And this, because I don't think I told you what a ridge was or what a saddle was, or maybe a little bit more on the saddle, but you followed your example. Yeah, you can kind of like hypothesize based on what you see, based on what the others are saying. Sure. Well, like, if you didn't see that, it would be harder to just look at it and, you know, like visually matched with the text. So having the words up there, the visuals there, and by like pattern, what other people say, you can say, like, "Oh, that's similar to it." Yeah. So which is the worst seat for learning if you're like, you're waiting to see the pattern because he only gets one example. There's no pattern yet. Oh, oh, I thought you meant of like, no, what was your comment then? I can mess everyone else up. You can do that too. Or we could learn from an example that he's wrong, and then we'd be right. Yes. But it typically, it's a little bit more uncomfortable to be in the first seat. Better in Lyle's seat because she's had a chance to see my example. Your two people can steal your thing at your last. That's true too. And they will. These are students of PS59 in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. These fourth graders are being videoed as they go through a sequence of four lessons with a terrain model. There are four sections: terrain, rivers, coastline, and maps. In each section, there is a list of landform terms for students to read and pronounce. This chart helps to anchor the lesson for teachers and students. We're going to say these in unison. We're not going to define these. That'll happen kind of as we work, but right now, we want to get the pronunciation right so that when they come up, you'll be able to say them. Okay, and you listen to everybody. [Music] Now, the pass, gap, has that comma in between, meaning they're synonyms or the same. All right, well, the trick to getting it right is that sin means, um, the same Latin, and nim means name. So sin o nem. Yeah. We won't even mention the spice that mixes us up with that word because that, that's not where you want to go. You want to think of sin. All right, so let's go on here. [Music] And they are. Whoa, that's perfect. [Music] These are not synonyms, but they're words used to describe a slope. Is it a steep slope? Is it a gentle slope? So I just included them on here. Okay, we're good to go. I point to a mountain peak and then ask students to point with a stick, identify their own mountain peak, and to pass the stick on to the next in line. I try to have students speak a sentence, "This is a mountain peak," but their voices are so tentative, so quiet. It is difficult to coax the sentence out of them. Beautiful. That's another mountain peak. Yeah, yeah. There's one. Oh, these are good. Do they have to have snow on them? No, no. Okay, I'm just saying because you might run out of peaks. This one right here, it's interesting. It's like a ridge with a little bump on it, which you could call a peak. There's an unsnowy mountain peak. Very nice. Another unsnowy peak. Nice. That's the kind of lower one, but it works. Yeah. A very rounded one. Good, good. Hey, before that, you want to try? Yes, that's a lower one, but it works. It's a peak. Very nice. Mountain. It's not the peak. It's this. It's long edge. It's a sounds like edge. It's rich. Is it up there? Yeah. All right, so let's do ridges now. And there's lots of ridges. And yeah, when you do ridge, by the way, let's say, let's use the sentence frame, "This is a ridge," and you got to move your stick along the ridge wherever it is. Will you say your sentence? This. Yes. Now his is really interesting because he starts down low and it climbs up to a. Yeah. And mountain climbers love nothing better. Good. Wait a minute. They love to climb up mountain ridges to get to a peak because there's like a nice angle there. Uh, this whole thing. Let me just step back just a little bit. Like here. Yes. A lower ridge than this ridge. This ridge is lower than this one. Okay, very good. In the next person. Now, if you want. Okay, look at that. Hey, look. Trade. You just be careful. It's almost like a two-handed stick so you don't like hit anybody with it. Yeah. Yes. It's really hard to maneuver that stick. It's this between this peak and this peak. This whole ridge. Oh, yes. Say it loud. Beautiful. All right, again. Two hands on this. We don't want anybody get poked. Yes. Okay, now you might step off your where you are and step forward a little bit right here to this peak. It's interesting that ridges kind of connect peaks. Some of them. Later, students point to canyons/gorges. The students demonstrate their understanding by pointing, but still they hesitate to express their understanding in words. So right here, this is a canyon. The first person who comes after me has the hardest job because you haven't seen your classmates point out a similar one. But you know, you don't have to worry. If you feel like, "I'm not sure yet," say, say your sentence though. Wait a second. Say, you said it's coming to you soon. Yes. This is a canyon. Excellent. You try. Okay. Use this stickler. Yes, very nice. It's higher up than the other canyon, right? We're going to the back. Once you come around with the short stick. These long ones. Yes. Seem to be a lot of canyons. Are they connected? Yes. And look, the one they're connected to the main canyon. Is it also a canyon? Yes. Yes, that's nice. Down in here. This was like a gorge or canyon. Very nice. Yeah, you might as well come around. Very nice. The lesson culminates with higher than statements. Nothing is just high. Things are either higher than or lower than other things. This is called relative elevation. In this lesson, students can choose which land forms to compare as they make their higher than statements. Students are reviewing the terrain terms while at the same time demonstrating their understanding of relative elevation. Nice. That works. Oh, nice. Look at that. I like the variety. I never know. Students are very nice. It's interesting that it's a plane and a plateau. It's both. That's nice. This ridge here, this peak. Let's see. It's higher than this ridge. Good. It works.