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Climate Change: Learning Log

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Key Learning:

Fridays lectures and workshops definitely made me more aware of climate change and the impact we are having on issues such as global warming. It specifically allowed me to gain a deeper understanding into:

  • What climate change actually is and it differs from day to changes in the weather. I now have a better understanding that climate change is taken from the average weather and temperatures over a considerable period of time.
  • How politics and climate change are so closely linked and the impact our politics and our beliefs can have and are having on climate change. Louise’s workshop allowed me to see that as humans we are far less likely to support a party that is aiming to fight climate change and global warming as the language we use when discussing it is always so far in the future meaning we struggle to want to take responsibility for it when we aren’t going to see its affects immediately in our day to day lives.
  • Some interesting ways of teaching or doing practical activities in class related to climate change and the weather. In particular I found the cloud in the jar and the thermometer task quite interesting experiments and our both something I would consider doing with a class in the future.
  • The impact that climate change is having. The lectures and work involved in this module to do with climate as always when dealing with the issue of climate change and global warming makes it shocking clear the impact its having on the planet with videos of ice caps melting and others showing the amount of CO2 that we are putting into the air.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

This weeks work has impacted on my views of climate change. I am now far more aware of it than I have been in the past and far more concerned about doing my bit to help reduce my own carbon footprint which while already not too bad at 71% could probably be slightly lower. As a flat I know that we are now trying to recycle a lot more, this is something that I have never really done in the past but as Ayrshire council provides recycling bins and with their being a bottle bank near by it seems only fair that we start to our bit their and recycle more.

In practice I can definitely see myself using a lot of the activities and experiments Andrew showed us linked in with some lessons on climate change as I could see how making a tornado in a jar and building their own thermometer could be very interesting for children. It is also very important that we educate children in climate change from a young as they will want to do something about it they will be keen to do walk to school weeks and recycle more and contribute to other environmentally friendly projects in and around the school. This then makes them more aware of the impact they are having on the environment and gives more hope for a healthier future for the Earth.

Areas of interest to explore further/develop:

  • I plan to look into the politics behind climate change slightly more as it was something that I had never truly considered just how much it impacted in how we try to tackle the issues of climate change and global warming.
  • I also plan to look further into the experiments Andrew showed us to see what other ideas are available when teaching about climate change and how others would suggest linking them into a lesson.

The Environment Learning Log

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The environment itself could be defined according to Kemp, D (2004) as the surrounding area and everything within it, although it is most commonly thought of in terms of nature. Our interest in environment stems from an early age from our want to become aware of and then to start exploring our surroundings. Spatial awareness plays a big part in this. As when a child is first born it depends on taste and touch to engage with its surroundings but as it develops it begin to be able to focus on and see objects with in its environment and then as of about the age of ten months the child is capable of crawling and hence able to begin to explore its environment for itself. The environment itself could be defined according to Kemp, D (2004) as the surrounding area and everything within it, although it is most commonly thought of in terms of nature.

With regards to the environment Scoffham (2010) claims that “Our sense of identity, it seems, derives in some part from the social and physical environment in which we spend our childhood.” This means that our environment plays a part in how we learn to interact with others and how we feel towards certain tasks. In interacting with their environments children gain essential survival skills, life skills and learn to accept the consequences of their actions. This prepares them well for developments in later life however it can now be suggested that current generations of children are not fully engaging with the outside world and although schools cannot hope to take the place of the child’s own self-discovery it is important that we take the steps to encourage a child’s interest in nature and their environment through data collecting activities, field work or even school trips. This in turn allows us to encourage children to be more active learners and discover things in their environment for themselves rather than simply being passive learners.

A lot of my own attitudes towards the environment probably come from growing up in the countryside and having a very large garden meaning that there was always plenty for me to explore and lots of adventure to be had. I have also been left with plenty of positive memories of the outdoors through having a family that is very keen on hill walking and cycling whilst also being a part of the scouts and duke of Edinburgh.

Fridays session allowed me to see interesting examples of how we could encourage pupils to become engaged with the natural environment. Personally I found the tree identification task the most interesting and feel it would be easiest for pupils to undertake as unlike wildlife and birds trees are less likely to wander off or remain to elusive for the pupils to survey. I found the bug survey task to be the least engaging however I can see how pupils might have more luck as they would probably be more willing to dig around the mud for beetles where as we found very few. I also like the example used in the Andrews workshop of giving the class plants to grow. This educates pupils in plants and their needs whilst teaching pupils responsibility and getting them excited and interesting in plants and the environment around them. It also helps move pupils away from being in the bubble wrap generation that Scoffham by letting get involved and become active learners so that they can experience things first hand for themselves and learn not just from the lesson itself but from their mistakes.