September 2016 – UWS BA ePDPs

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My Local Urban Area

I live in a town in the west coast of Scotland called Kilmarnock. It is a relatively small place, however is the second largest town in Ayrshire. In the town centre, there are over 60 shops there (although now since some have closed down, about 30 of them are now either pound shops or card shops). There is also a cinema as well as a leisure centre called ‘The Galleon’ which has a swimming pool, gym, ice rink and games halls.

There are 12 primary schools and 4 secondary schools spread around the area of Kilmarnock. I attended Kilmarnock Academy for 6 years between 2009-2015. This school is the only in Scotland to have educated two nobel prize winners. There are a few community centres in Kilmarnock where various events and clubs are held.

In Kilmarnock we have both a bus and a train station and so you can travel to anywhere using just public transport! The train is a popular form to travel in when going to Glasgow and they are currently working on a bus route from Kilmarnock to Silverburn shopping centre which is also set to be extremely popular.

The Palace Theatre has been a huge part of Kilmarnock’s community for over 150 years, it opened as a corn exchange a first but then converted to a theatre only 40 years later. Here is where I and countless others have performed in shows. I actually performed in the 150th anniversary of the theatre as part of East Ayrshire Youth Theatre, a drama club for youths in east Ayrshire.

We have many parks in Kilmarnock, the Kay, Dean and Howard. The Kay Park has been done up in the recent years and has since reopened the Burns Monument centre which is a popular place to get married. The Dean park is a great tourist attraction due to the history of the Dean Castle and the range of wildlife and animals it has.

Kilmarnock was the home to Johnnie Walker, the large whiskey producer until the factory got shut down in 2012. It is the most largely distributed brand of blended scotch whiskey in the world.

The population of Kilmarnock is 46340 and the population density is 3,152.5 inh./km² .

The air pollution level in Kilmarnock is currently sitting at the low score of 1.

Sustainable Development Learning Log : The Environment

Key Learning: ‘What does ‘The Environment’ mean to you?’ was the leading question in this week’s lecture/workshops and this made me think not only about the environment in regards to nature but also the different types of environment which impact … Continue reading →

Key Learning:

‘What does ‘The Environment’ mean to you?’ was the leading question in this week’s lecture/workshops and this made me think not only about the environment in regards to nature but also the different types of environment which impact our lives such as community and people.
The environment and sustainability, focusing on our impact on our environment.
To consider our own urban environment.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

Both Andrew and Louise’s inputs have encouraged me to re-evaluate my thoughts on the environment and allowed me to successfully see how to introduce and engage this type of topic to children, as the workshops were both very practical – involving us to go out and explore the area surrounding the university campus completing different activities such as bark and leaf rubbings and identifying various insects.

Furthermore, the independent study task allocated this week enabled me to think more about my urban environment eg.the Industries/ work, transport, green spaces and community aspects within my town.

Areas of interest to explore further/develop:

To consider the wide range of tasks/activities which could be used in order to teach children outdoors.
To explore my own urban environment.

The Urban Environment

My local urban environment is a town called Ayr, which is in South Ayrshire. Ayr is a very large town with a large population, due to the many housing estates. Recently, Ayr’s population has grown, some of this population growth is due to the amount of students moving to Ayr in order to study at the University of the West of Scotland or Ayr college. A short distance away from the University, there is student accommodation which is based on the riverside. Also, recently there has been new student accommodation built in order to meet the demand of all the new students coming to study at Ayr.

Ayr is a very popular tourist destination and tends to attract many people to our open, green spaces such as Rozelle, Belleisle and the Low Green , which is situated directly across from the beach. Ayr beach is also very popular, especially in the summer when there is good weather. Many people from Glasgow tend to come to Ayr for the beach

– Rozelle

– Belleisle

– Low Green/ Ayr Beach

Today, the Low Green is a major attraction with its large expanse of grassland, which encourages visitors to picnic, play ball games or just enjoy the views of Ayr. However, during the First World War the Royal Flying Corps were given permission to use the Low Green as a landing strip before they moved to the Racecourse in 1916. The Low Green is also where the Scottish Air Show is held which attracts many people also.

Here is a link showing a video from the Scottish Air Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09mqMSgySTg

– Air Show

There are many roads throughout Ayr which allows people to come from many different directions. If people do not have cars that they can travel to Ayr with, they can always get a train or a bus which comes and goes directly to and from Ayr on a regular basis. Due to many people coming into Ayr for various different reasons such as work, education or even just shopping, the traffic can be very busy at times. This can cause many problems, especially early in the morning and at night when people are leaving to go home. An area of the road that many people tend to use to get to and from Ayr, is the Whitletts roundabout which is always very busy and people have argued that it is a very dangerous roundabout.

In South Ayrshire, there are 8 secondary schools, 41 primary schools, and 2 special schools managed by the Council. This is a large number of schools, which emphasises the amount of people that live in South Ayrshire. At the moment, there is a new £25 million, Ayr Academy being built just directly across from the University of the West of Scotland in the Craigie Estate. This is planning to be open in August 2017. There are 10 libraries operated in South Ayrshire, the main one being Carnegie in Ayr. There is also a mobile library service.

Within Ayr there is also a police station, a fire station and a hospital. University Hospital Ayr lies on the southern outskirts of Ayr and is the main Accident and Emergency centre for South Ayrshire. Here, there is a newly refurbished Accident and Emergency which is still going on.

There are many shops within Ayr which suit most of the people in the town. In March, 2006 Ayr Central shopping centre was opened. The shopping centre is situated between Ayr Train Station and Ayr High Street and provides parking for around 500 cars. This gives many people the opportunity to do their shopping in Ayr, rather than going to Silverburn or Glasgow centre. The opening of this shopping centre also gave many people jobs. There are also large supermarket branches based within Ayr, including: Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl. There are also other things in Ayr that you can attend such as the citadel leisure centre, which has a swimming pool, a gym and lots of fitness classes. There is also an Odeon and a Gaitey theatre in Ayr which is not only good for children, but also for adults.

– Ayr Central Shopping Centre

– Odeon Cinema

– Gaitey Theatre

– Citadel Leisure Centre

References:

http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/about/ayr

http://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/parks/

urban area

I live in a town called Irvine which is in North Ayrshire it is on the coast of the firth of Clyde. Irvine is quite a large town I would say and has quite a lot of buildings and things to … Continue reading →

I live in a town called Irvine which is in North Ayrshire it is on the coast of the firth of Clyde. Irvine is quite a large town I would say and has quite a lot of buildings and things to do in it, in this blog I am going to be discussing all about my urban area. Below is a map of Irvine

There are many different buildings in my urban area we have a shopping mall called the Rivergate with over fifty different shops in it. There is also a leisure centre with a swimming pool, ice rink, gym and soft play in it. However this will soon be closing and moving to a different area in Irvine meaning that it will have less facilities in it as it will be a lot smaller.

Image result for magnum irvine

Image result for rivergate shopping centre

There is quite a lot of methods of transport used to get around Irvine and also to other nearby bigger towns like Ayr and Glasgow. There are trains that run frequently to Ayr and Glasgow these are on Everyday. There is also busses that run to these towns. There is many local busses that take you to different parts of the town these busses tend to be very frequent and run every ten minutes. I think the amount of transport being used in the town will have an negative effect on the environment as this will be polluting the air quite badly. At the moment in Irvine there is a lot of road works going on which is causing many delays and traffic jams in the town. There is also the new the roads and roundabout being built at an entrance to a new housing scheme.

There are many primary schools in Irvine and one secondary school. Within Irvine there are a few different schemes for example there is Girdle Toll and Castlepark to name a couple within each of these they tend to have a primary school for that area and also a community centre for that area, I would say in total there is around ten community centres in Irvine.

With Irvine being a large town there is many different types of jobs available, there is retail as the Rivergate shopping centre has more than fifty shops. There is also many jobs working on the railway and construction to name a few. However I would not say there is many agricultural jobs available.

The link we were given said the page is no longer available for the population density so I did not get my information from that link however I did find that the population in 2011 was 64,148 for men alone and 70,982 for females.

The air quality was quite low when I went on to the site to check this it was coming in at 3.

Sustainable Development Study Task: The Urban Environment

I live in a small town called Viewpark, which is often categorised under Uddingston, in North Lanarkshire. It is made up of many housing schemes, mainly council and has many small towns surrounding such as Bothwell and Bellshill. I … Continue reading →

I believe that there is a great sense of community in my town. There are many aspects which support and enhance the community such as the community centre which provides various leisure activities, the library, the health centre, the newly built care home, shops, restaurants and bars. There are also two primary school situated in the heart of my town and many other primary and secondary schools surrounding. In 2012, Viewpark saw the return of its Gala day for the first time since 1988 in which focuses on bringing everyone in the community together with many fun attractions such as a parade, funfair rides, bouncy castles, various stalls and entertainment. The focus youth project also provides a wide range of educational, recreational and outdoor learning programmes to the youth of my town.

In terms of transport there are various facilities, one being the well run bus services connecting the surrounding towns such as Bellshill, Motherwell and Hamilton. Despite Viewpark not actually having its own train station, there are two very popular stations extremely close which have trains running to both Glasgow and Edinburgh. Currently there are some developments being made to the motorways A8 and M74 surrounding my area, with many road closures and diversions which is causing a lot of traffic and confusion.

In my urban environment there are a few green spaces such as the glen, local parks and local football pitches. Viewpark Gardens is a horticultural centre that incorporates several types of gardens and glasshouse displays, among the features of the gardens are Japanese and Highland plants. This is a very popular venue for wedding photos also. However, North Lanarkshire Council recently launched an £250,000 garden allotments project, in Viewpark gardens, where people can grow their own fruit and veg.

Viewpark/Uddingston, as well as closely surrounding towns, provides a great deal of jobs from the local shops, restaurants/bars, doctors to factory work. Uddingston is home to the Tunnock’s factory, famous for its caramel wafers and teacakes. The family-run business was founded in 1890 and is still based in the town today offering hundreds of jobs to the community. Also there are two large industrial estates, Bellshill and Tannochside, which also employ a lot of the community.

North Lanarkshire has a population density of 719 people per square km. (http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc134_c/index.html )

My urban area has also got a low level of air pollution, I found this surprising considering it is quite industrial. (http://www.scottishairquality.co.uk/latest/?postcode=g71+5hf&postcode-submit.x=0&postcode-submit.y=0 )

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Urban Environment

I live in a small town called Bellshill in North Lanarkshire. It is a very old town with records dating back to 1654 where quarry workers settled in a small village. Bellshill has always been an industrial town with many mines up until 1953, it is also just under 4 miles from Ravenscraig which was […]

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Bellshill, like most small villages in North Lanarkshire, does not have much to offer in terms of leisurely places to visit or shop. The town has a library, a leisure centre and two supermarkets. The town has always had a few cafes and pubs but has recently opened two quite successful restaurants given their location, one of which just recently won an award for being the best mediterranean establishment in Scotland. Back in 1958, Bellshill changed their two-ward hospital into a massive two building maternity. This was the first in the whole Lanrkshire area and I quite often find like myself, many of my friends and family were born there. However the maternity was closed in 2001 and demolished in 2003 to make way for new housing developments, which is actually where I am currently living. I also live next to the Bellshill industrial estate, one of the two in Bellshill, so I do not live in a very green part of Bellshill.

250px-bellshill_main_street

Bellshill has many roads, two sides of the town are surrounded my motorways, which are currently having major work done causing in a lot of traffic, or connecting towns Motherwell and Uddingston.

The town does cover a small part of Strathclyde County Park as well as Hamilton and Motherwell. The park covers 1.5 square miles and is centred around a loch. Sadly this loch is artificial as it is simply a flooded mining village from 1970, parts of the loch are unaccessible due to wiring underneath the water. I do not think Bellshill is very green and highly polluted due to its industrial past.

The town has a train station which always has direct trains running to and from Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverly which is very handy and useful. The town also has a good bus service with the two biggest bus services in Lanarkshire running through it. As I mentioned Bellshill falls in Strathclyde park which means its easy to walk or cycle to Hamilton or Motherwell avoiding roads and motorways. I tend to travel to most places by car or train. There currently is a lot of work being done to the motorways A8 and M74 surrounding Bellshill with many road closures and route changes which is causing a lot of congestion and confusion amongst drivers, in the mornings especially.

I do not believe Bellshill is very urban at all. However recent developments such as the new restaurants and housing I do believe this can change. The town should possibly open more shops and leisure places such as a cinema etc.

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Learning Log 1: The Environment

Theme: THE ENVIRONMENT Key Learning: I learnt about both the natural and urban environment. The natural environment is made up of the elements which surround you, for example: the land, the people and the community. It is important to teach … Continue reading →

Theme: THE ENVIRONMENT

Key Learning:

I learnt about both the natural and urban environment. The natural environment is made up of the elements which surround you, for example: the land, the people and the community. It is important to teach sustainable development and the environment topic. If pupils can form a relationship with nature, and become interested in it, then they are more likely to care and look after it.

The urban environment refers to a built-up area such as a town or city. Urban areas tend to be packed full of buildings, roads, factories and transport.
Cities are responsible for a large amount of carbon emissions, whether this is from deforestation or burning of fossil fuels. There are a finite amount of fossil fuels and the demand for these is much greater than the supply.
As there is an increasing growth of the human population the urban areas must grow to suit. This can lead to cutting down forests, to make more space for buildings, which results in the loss of animal habitats and then eventually the loss of different species.
Our urban area is able to support human growth, allow us to physically develop through health care, allow us to socially develop through clubs and communities and provide us with education. It also provides lifelong care such as nursing homes and provides resources for life. Our urban area allows us to interact with nature and shows the diversity of different species.

I also learnt about the different parts of a flower as well as the process of germination and photosynthesis. I also learnt that hydroponics is the process of growing a plant without soil.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

During the input on the environment we were able to go out onto the grounds surrounding the university and complete different tasks relating to the topic. We were given sheets with different types of plants, birds, insects and lichen and we were to go out a walk and try and identify them. This made me realise how little attention I pay when walking from the car park into the university as there were all these different species of living things that I had never really noticed before. It was good to get involved in the task.

I was able to look further into my own urban environment and it was interesting to see how many details you don’t really think about on a day to day basis. For instance I never really thought about the carbon emissions and how driving in my car every day is in some way adding onto this. It makes you think what a difference it would make if we were able to use different modes of transport, like the trams in Edinburgh, or try cycling to work and university instead of taking the car.

In the science lab we set up an experiment to compare the difference between two seedlings. One was set up with the complete solution and the other was without nitrogen. Over the course of the week we have been checking up on the seedlings and comparing the length and appearance of the two.

Areas of interest to explore further/develop:

I’m looking forward to becoming more confident about teaching science and sustainable development. To further develop my knowledge on the environment topic so far I am going to engage in some further reading as well as doing some more research online.