Month: December 2016

Energy

Key learning

I learned about how we almost depend on fossil fuel for example cooking, heating and plastic. However, there is ways around this. One example is through using hydrogen as a fuel which has a high energy efficiency, can be produced from water and doesn’t have carbon emotions.

Impact or view/lifestyle

I hadn’t considered energy in great detail before but I now feel more passionate and that I could do more to cause less harm to the environment e.g. Recycling more.

Disasters

Key learning

Urban environment: I gained knowledge on my urban environment such as community and recreational spaces, transport and physical characteristics. I was able to explore and analyse these areas.

I began to understand the parts of a plant and could deepen my knowledge through looking at the plants under the microscope.

Impact on views/ lifestyle/ practices

I began to look at places different after considering my urban environment. I have a better appreciation to the importance on walking, cycling or using public transport where possible.

I have the confidence to teach about the environment within schools when I placement through knowledge I have gained from this module.

Areas of interest to further explore:

From all of the natural disasters I learned about I found earthquakes the most interesting. I will now look into them in further detail and explore the causes more.

Learning log

Theme: climate change

Key learning

I found the lectures and workshops about climate change very interesting.

I found out that the climate is how the weather should be at certain points if the year e.g. During winter we expect the weather to be cold in the UK. However, there is evidence to prove our climate has been changing.

I learned that there is huge impacts from climate change including higher temperatures, higher sea levels dues to the ice caps melting and extreme weather events. All of these will negatively effect not only the people but the wildlife and available for example the polar bears.

Impact on my views/ lifestyle

Through learning about global warming, I now realise that it isn’t just going to make the temperature increase but it is damaging our atmosphere and have severe effects on weather, animals and wildlife. I will now try to be more eco friendly as I feel it is almost selfish as my action can help to cause negative effects such as flooding crops which could be how someone makes money or grow their food.

Areas to explore and further develop:

Learning log

Theme: urban environment

Key learning

Throughout this weeks task I have discovered more and analysed the urban environment that I live in.

I had never really considered all of the different transport methods in my environment which have harmful effects. However, there are many bus services and a train station in my urban environment which many people choose to use instead of traveling my car which helps to reduce the harmful gasses.

I was also able to find out about harmful gasses in my local environment and that building such as factories give off these gasses which will have negative effects on us.

Impact on my views/lifestyle and practice

Through taking time to understand my urban environment, I now will consider if could take an alternative transport method rather than driving or share lifts with people close by.

I had never really considered the harmful gasses given off from buildings. Now I feel passionate that we should be taking a lot more care as this not only effects our community but the world as a whole.

Areas of interest to explore/ further develop:

I found it interesting learning about pollution in my local area. I will now further develop my knowledge by finding out about pollution levels in Glasgow and I can then compare then to other cities across the world.

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Urban environment

Transport

In my urban environment there is many different popular methods of transport. There is a train station, busses, cars, cyclists and many people choose to walk. The most popular method of transport is cars as the majority of houses have at least one however, many people choose to use public transport to get to their work. This is a benefit to the environment as it helps to prevent the amount of harmful fuel affect the atmosphere.

Community space

In my environment there are three schools. One of them is a new build as there was four schools but two of them have been combined into one. This is good for the environment as it cuts down the amount of electricity being used and it cuts down the cost on materials allowing the money to be spent on other areas of the community. There is also a library which anyone can use but it is particularly targeted toward children from pre school to primary school age which helps to aid in their crucially important development. There are also parks and scenic walkways which encourages people to be outside and exercise.

Recreational spaces

In my urban environment there is a sport centre. It offers gymnastics, swimming, dance, multi sports, football, a gym and fitness classes. The sport centre is used my people of all ages but usually retired adults and young children during the day and working people and teenagers later on and the class times are made to suit this.

Industry and work

In my urban environment there is a lot of agricultural work as there is many farms. The farms no longer have animals in them but are used to grow and sell crops. There is retail services such as supermarkets and clothing shops which are heavily used by the people who live in the local area. My urban environment has services such as health centres, a police station and a prison which helps to keep us healthy and safe.

Physical characteristics

There are a few different types of building in my environment. These many include churches, flats and houses. The road organisation is a mix of minor and major roads and motorway access. There is quite a lot of green spaces for example walkways along the canal and pathways around the ‘moss’.

Population density

My local area had a population of roughly 105,000 people in 2011. However this is a decrease on the number of people that there was ten years previous to that which was roughly 108,000. This could possibly have been due to the financial crisis.

Air quality

The air quality level for pollution level in my urban environment is low (1) according to Scottish Air Quality.

Climate change

The climate change (Scotland) Act 2009 has an impact on my lifestyle and choices to a certain extent. With the charge of carrier bags I have become more eco friendly. I now try to always bring my own carrier bags when I am shopping which prevents me from buying them in shops which in turns helps our society by reducing the carbon footprint.

With target to reduce carbon monoxide I now try to share lifts with people who live close to home when we are traveling to the same place. This means less fuel will be used which will help to prevent the environment from harmful gasses.

With the targets of reduction of packaging, product I have bought are more Eco friendly meaning more can be recycled and there is now less waste.

With the climate change (Scotland) act 2009, the environment is now more Eco friendly.

 

• The map above shows the floor plan of the school. School A is an open-plan school and F.E 1 are the doors to the playground.

• This picture shows the outside grounds of School A. This picture looks onto the playground behind the gates. The red circular stands are the bins that a group of litters take charge of. This group constantly changes to allow every child to make a contribution to sustaining the Green Flag they were recently awarded.

• This image shows the recycling bins that are situated just outside of the playground. School A prides themselves on “Reduce, re-use and recycle”.
• The litter picking team are educated on what litter goes in the appropriate bins. They are then able to take this knowledge home and practice it using the litter that comes from their own home.
•  Learning this knowledge and skills at this age and stage in their lives, can help to benefit our future environment in the sense that this will hopefully become common knowledge and everyone will be using their recycling bins.

• The picture to the left shows the garden that the school staff members and pupils maintain. Here, they grow plants and vegetables themselves.
• This shows evidence of their existing engagement in sustainable development. It also shows their engagement with healthy eating and their knowledge of where their food comes from.
• During our trip to the farm, it was explained to us that children these days are often unsure of where their food comes from and assume it comes from the local supermarket. This way, they are able to understand the process of how it begins, grows and eventually ends up on their plate.
  During these exercises, the children are also engaging with aspects such as soil and learning how things grow and what we need to use for growth, i.e. warmth, moisture etc.

• This image shows evidence of the pupil’s engagement with recycling paper. Each classroom has a separate bin for paper. The printer/photocopy room also supplies recycled paper and the teachers use this most the time/when appropriate.

• Evidence of the efforts made to save energy by switching off lights and equipment when they are not in use. These kinds of stickers are placed behind every light switch in the open-plan classroom and around the school.

 

• Primary 6 engage in a renewable energy topic. During this topic, they take a trip to the windfarm, and they have a visitor come in who works in promoting this. The visitor delivers a presentation to the pupil’s and conducts a few activities with them on this subject. Here are some examples of the pupil’s posters on wind turbines etc. This shows active engagement in sustainable development.

 

Considering the amount of pupil’s in the school, I believe the actual play space to be more than suitable. It is very large and there is several different gym type equipment scattered around the playground. Alongside this, there are football nets for the children to use. Inside the school, as it is open-plan, it is important there is a space adequate for physical education etc. There is a large gym hall where they can perform these types of lessons and activities. They also hold after school clubs where they take part in different kinds of sports regularly. Alongside this, there is also a noisy-quiet room, which I think is essential in an open-plan classroom. Children can benefit hugely from this area and engage in several different subjects without disrupting any other class/pupil.

During a discussion with children on these different aspects, they agreed that they enjoy using this space. They feel a larger sense of freedom in terms of the noise they can make and the different activities they can take part in. I believe it is extremely important for children to have this time. Furthermore, we discussed the aspects of sustainable development in their school that they enjoy. Pupil’s enjoy the aspect of litter picking as they feel a sense of pride that they are helping keep up the green flag responsibility. To expand on this, the P6’s went on an outing to the beach where their main aim was to collect litter and extend their help from the school to the community. I attended this trip on one of my serial days and they children were split into three groups. One group collected litter with litter pickers and emptied it into black bin bags, one group were active and played some physical games, and the other explored the rocks on the beach and the different types of living things that grow there. They thoroughly enjoyed this and they aim to do this more often. The school also has balls for bird food in the gardens which was another aspect that the children highlighted. They enjoy being able to care for the wildlife during school hours too. Finally, the last point the children brought up during our discussion was their walk/bike to school week. The children explained that they all became competitive with one another and they enjoy that this mini competition also has a major impact on the environment. They were fully aware that the exhaust fumes from cars pollute the air and understood that walking or cycling to school can benefit the environment and have a positive impact on their health in the sense that they are keeping fit.