During the inputs on energy it was good to get a quick refresher on the different types of energy and the different areas within those types that you might focus on within a primary setting. Obviously renewable energy makes a fantastic topic in the primary environment not just because it comes with great opportunities for more hands on learning through school trips to places such as wind farms or as we saw today through getting pupils to create their own examples of wind turbines or anemometers.

From what we were shown in the lectures I can definitely see myself doing a debate with a class in the future on the advantages and disadvantages of a renewable energy source. In case of the workshop we looked into wind power and it worked really well as a way to encourage us to learn more in depth knowledge on wind energy through readings and to then come together with our peers to share our findings before final presenting our research int he form of a debate. This could be a very useful activity to do with pupils as it builds on their note taking skills as the write down key information, gets them to use their negotiation skills to decide who is doing what task and who should present before finally allowing them to use presenting skills and build on their debating skills in a debate at the end of the session. In a class room environment this is also a fantastic way to bring in lots of cross curricular learning as pupils could create posters to display their information create models that would help them demonstrate or understand facts or perhaps write up a report of how they felt the debate went and the pros and cons for each side.

Through the science workshop we were also able to see some very useful and interesting ways to use energy to bring some interesting experiments into the classroom from classic circuit activities to a rather interesting experiment involving an electromagnet.  I think pupils would engage very well with these task particularly the problem solving aspect of working with the circuits and while they would enjoy building the correct circuit to get the required result I think they would find equally interesting getting to experiment with the different components.

Final the more practical input on create and building items such as the anemometer was useful as it allowed me to see what problems pupils could encounter when engaging with those sort of task and see how disappointing it could be for them if they spent all that time building a kite and then it wasn’t windy or the straws weren’t strong enough so their creation would just fall apart in the wind. I also allowed me to see some really easy ways of using the topic of energy to bring some really creative and engaging activities into the class room and to allow pupils to have a more meaningful way of gaining measurement and team work skills.

As part of the topic on interdependence we visited a farm and had a lecture from the Scottish soil association. During the farm visit  we were able to see the benefits of getting to know your food and seeing the conditions in which the animals in which we depend on for our milk at breakfast are currently being reared in. Personally I was very impressed and surprised by how modern the farm was and by how happy all the cows seemed to be. Interdependence was shown through the cows need of grass, hay or other sources of food to survive but then our own need of the cows for milk and beef. Although at first keeping the cows permanently inside seemed slightly cruel however having had it explained that it kept the cows at an ideal temperature and allowed them to regulate their feed to ensure each animal was eating the correct amount it did make a lot of sense and in many ways it makes more sense that they would be happier inside as we have spent many years perfecting inside for ourselves as humans why wouldn’t other animals appreciate the same change. It is definitely the sort of trip I would consider doing with pupils in the future as it really would help them open their eyes to wear their food comes from, the effort that goes into farming it and allow them to get to ask a lot of questions they might have about the process first hand. I know this was certainly very useful for us as university students so I can only begin to imagine how questions pupils would have.

The talk from the soil association was fantastic from a teachers point of view it allowed me to see the variety of ways soil can be incorporated into learning from showing me how to identify different types of soil which could be used to get pupils used to reading charts and graphs and recording information. To the different studies and research task thats could be conducted into the large varieties of soil, how it is formed and the variety of life that it supports. It also helped build on them of interdependence as soil is in many ways one of the building blocks for all life being what allows plants the support and nutrients they need to grow it is many ways the start of the food chain as the the base for all primary organisms.  I feel pupils would also really engage with the hands on learning of getting to go and out and feel and mold different types of soil in order to be able to gage what its consistency and colour is and ergo find its type.

Moving into talking about the group study task on building an infographic this helped bring to light the significance of interdependence mainly via the fishing industry and how dependent a lot of countries are on fish to feed their people. I also felt I learned more about the political aspects and economic aspects of fishing and the amount of work that goes into mapping out fishing arrears to protect areas and different types of sea life. It also gave an excellent opportunity to work with peers and share our learning and findings as we created the infographic and allowed me to gain a wider overall knowledge on the subject.