Unit 1 Great scientists
Teaching aims
1. To help students learn to describe people
2. To help students learn to read a narration about John Snow
3. To help students better understand ―Great scientists‖
4. To help students learn to use some important words and expressions
5. To help students identify examples of ―The Past Participle (1) as the Predicative & the
attribute‖
Period 1 Warming up and reading
Teaching Procedures
I. Warming up
Step I Lead in
Talk about scientist.
T: Hi, morning, class. Nice to see you on this special day, the day when you become a senior two grader. I am happy to be with you helping you with your English. Today we are to read about a certain scientist. But first let‘s define the word ―scientist‖. What is a scientist?
A scientist is a person who works in science, trying to understand how the universe or other things work.
Scientists can work in different areas of science. Here are some examples: Those that study physics are physicists. Those that study chemistry are chemists. Those that study biology are biologists.
Step II
Ask the students to try the quiz and find out who knows the most.
T: There are some great scientific achievements that have changed the world. Can you name some of them? What kind of role do they play in the field of science? Do these achievements have anything in common? Match the inventions with their inventors below before you answer all these questions.
1. Archimedes, Ancient Greek (287-212 BC), a mathematician.
2. Charles Darwin, Britain (1808-1882). The name of the book is Origin of Species.
3. Thomas Newcomen, British (1663-1729), an inventor of steam engine.
4. Gregor Mendel, Czech, a botanist and geneticist.
5. Marie Curie, Polish and French, a chemist and physicist.
6. Thomas Edison, American, an inventor.
7. Leonardo da Vinci, Italian, an artist.
8. Sir Humphry Davy, British, an inventor and chemist.
9. Zhang Heng, ancient China, an inventor.
10. Stepper Hawking, British, a physicist.
1 1
II. Pre-reading
Step I
Get the students to discuss the questions on page 1 with their partners. Then ask the students to report their work. Encourage the students to express their different opinions.
1. What do you know about infectious diseases?
2. What do you know about cholera?
3. Do you know how to prove a new idea in scientific research?
Anybody might come out with a new idea. But how do we prove it in scientific research? There are seven stages in examining a new idea in scientific research. And they can be put in the following order. What order would you put the seven in? Just guess.
Find a problem→ Make up a question→ Think of a method→ Collect results→Analyse the results→ Draw a conclusion→ Repeat if necessary
III. Reading
Step I Pre-reading
1. Do you know John Snow?
John Snow is a well-known doctor in the 19th century in London and he defeated ―King Cholera‖.
2. Do you know what kind of disease is cholera?
It is a kind of terrible disease caused by drinking dirty water and it caused a lot of deaths in the old times and it was very difficult to defeat.
Let‘s get to know how Dr. John Snow defeated ―King Cholera‖in 1854 in London in this reading passage:
Step II Skimming
Read the passage and answer the questions.
1. Who defeats ―King Cholera―? (John Snow)
2. What happened in 1854? (Cholera outbreak hit London.)
3. How many people died in 10 days? (500)
4. Why is there no death at No. 20 and 21 Broad Street as well as at No. 8 and 9 Cambridge Street?
(These families had not drunk the water from the Broad Street pump.) (Optional)
2 2
Skim the passage and find the information to complete the form below.
Step III Scanning
Read the passage and number these events in the order that they happened.
John Snow began to test two theories.
