The disasters topic allowed an interesting look into a variety of case studies giving me a far greater understanding into the different types of disasters, real life examples of disaster and the kind of work that goes into preventing these disasters and into recovering from them after they have taken place. I found Andrews practical science workshop particularly interesting as it offered me a wide range of ideas of potential science experiments to take into case rooms. I feel in the future I would definitely like to use the baking soda volcano with a class to show the impact a volcano can have on an area and equally I was very interested in the activity involving looking into the geology of rocks. While it was particularly disaster focused it was still an interesting activity that I feel children would engage with although with that experiment in mind in particular I would have to be mindful of pupil safety certainly where the use hammers or acid was concerned it might be wiser of this experiment was conducted as a demonstration rather than allow the pupils free rein. These experiments are also incredible useful to give children a practical way to engage with task on recording information, note taking and measuring an taking results. The lectures were also very useful for highlighting the importance of showing children these disasters but not doing it in such a way as to scare them. Before these lectures this was not something I had overly considered but I am now aware of the importance of treating the topic with care. It was also very interesting learn via each case study the difference between how an economically developed or a less economically developed country can react to these disasters and then in turn how places such as Japan have such a good infrastructure and ways of dealing with events such as this that it can make these disasters feel far more controlled than perhaps they would in an LEDC.

I found the micro-teaching and presenting task particularly useful as it sourced me to engage with one specific disaster far more than I would have other wise and then via the presenting process allowed us to share our research and learn far more about each individual kind of disaster than we would have other wise. I particularly now have a wide knowledge of case study on the typhoon Hiayan which hit the Philippines with a diameter of 300 miles and caused major storm surges along the coast line some reaching as high as 15 meters. I also felt this task had particular benefit as it wasn’t assessed so it felt as though we had more free rein to experiment with different ways of presenting and different ideas with out having to worry as much about having to get a good grade out of it. It was good to have a chance to present with out the pressure of it being an assessment.