South Ayrshire

Physical Environment:

In South Ayrshire there is the beauty of escaping to the country side, whilst immersing yourself into a busy town with shops, restaurants and businesses. South Ayrshire has the busy high street and the beach front for families to enjoy a day at the seaside, but if you want to go hill walking and breathe in the cold country air then there is many hills and walks for you to get lost in. South Ayrshire has a rich historic element that often attracts tourists, such as; Robert Burn’s cottage and Culzean Castle. There is also many churches and the River Ayr which flows through the heart of the town, that is often filled with ducks and swans. My home is situated beside the Racecourse and the Golf course and many other parks that allow you to enjoy morning walks surrounded by trees and greenery. Whilst having this element, the busy bypass and supermarket is a 5 minute drive which gives you the best of both worlds. Having such a good choice of country walks and woodland to go out with my dogs is my favourite element of South Ayrshire.

Above is a picture of the popular tourist attraction, Robert burns Cottage.

Transport:

South Ayrshire offers many transport links, such as: the railway station that offers frequent trains everyday, there is also the stagecoach bus service that has many stops placed all throughout the town allowing easy transport from one area to another. Added to this, Ayr is very popular with taxi services, with about 8 companies competing for business just for Ayrshire. There is also an airport just outside of Ayr in the next town called Prestwick Airport. These types of transport cause lots of noise, however I do not stay near these main transport areas so I am not really affected by the noise they make and I have built up a tolerance of not even noticing the sound of cars and buses as this is background noise, as it is second nature now. However when near and around the airport I do notice the loud noise of the planes landing and taking off as this isn’t common to me. Ayr is never really still with transport, no matter what time of the day or night it is most likely that you will see cars driving about the roads. There is a minority of people who cycle and walks as their transport as the roads have been designed for people to have this opportunity, just recently a road in Ayr has been redesigned to give cyclists more space. Despite Ayr being filled with busy transport and constantly having people on the go, they have an extremely good pollution rates.

 

Below is the start of the new cycle lane on Holmston Road in Ayr to improve safety for cyclists.

By using the website www.scottishairquality.co.uk  you can enter the town or area you live in and it will give the area a number based on their pollution levels. With 1 being the lowest amount of pollution and 10 being very high. Ayr has the lowest number of 1 and the highest of 3 which is very good and results in less or any health issues being caused due to it.

Community Spaces:

Regarding schooling, South Ayrshire offers a fair choice for parents. There is also Catholic schools as well as many non-denominational schools to offer the best experience for each individual. Many schools are situated 5 minute walks from busy housing estates to allow them to be easily accessible for all.

Other community spaces in South Ayrshire are things such as; the public library, youth clubs which are situated throughout the town, such as The John Pollock Centre that allows children to meet up and do activities to keep them busy and build up friendships. Added to this, there is lots of clubs run by coaches and volunteers that allow children to get activate and improve their skills, such as football training.

Industry and Work:

South Ayrshire has a range of different types of work. There is many car mechanic businesses and also lots of fancy car garages offering lots of choice for residents. There are also the  town that has the high street and the central that has many retail shops that offer a choice of clothes, house and garden and toys as well as having 6 large supermarkets; Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s,  Lidl, Aldi and Sainsbury’s. Within the town there is many cafes and restaurants offering visitors many options. A big attraction business in Ayr is The Craig Tara Holiday park that often brings many holiday makers to Ayr to enjoy a break at the seaside. This business employs many workers for things such as; the restaurant, the sports and leisure complex, the entertainment and also the largest multi level swimming pool in the Scotland. Added to this, the local cinema and the citadel sports club offer many jobs, as well as other local gyms and fitness areas.

Above is a picture of the newly refurbished Craig Tara Swimming pool in Ayr.

Recreation Space:

They are many recreation spaces in Ayr, such as; outdoor skate boarding, indoor ice rink, cinema, theatre, swimming pool, and also gyms and fitness centers. For a fairly small town there is places for children and adults to go to enjoy some down time.

LEARNING LOG

Theme: Urban Environment

Key Learning:

Through doing this activity you learn things about the environment you live in that you normally don’t notice or pay attention to. Through doing this activity it allows you to reflect about the impact you have on your environment, this could be to do with the method of transport you use, where you live, what your job is, what you do in your spare time etc. This task allowed me to notice things I have grown used to, for example; listening to ‘background’ noise and thinking about how much transport is used and what damage that may be causing to our environment.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

Through doing this activity and realising how picturesque my town is, it did make me realise I should be going outdoors more often and enjoying the fresh air and forest walks available at my front door. Added to this, I should choose to walk more often than use my car, because this has benefits to me and my environment.

When doing this activity I was surprised to find out Ayr had a low air pollution rate. As there is always many cars, buses and taxis on the road.

I love the outdoors and getting mucky therefore I really do need to take more advantage of this.

Areas of interest to explore further/develop:

From doing this activity, I would be interested in setting myself a target of walking more places and getting outdoors more often and seeing places within my town that I have never been before.

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URBAN AREA TASK

Above is my results from taking the WWF carbon footprint test. I was shocked to see how high my carbon foot print was, I decided to investigate to see what areas in my lifestyle caused such a high percentage.

My previous knowledge was very limited and basic when it come towards what caused such a large carbon footprint. I knew that cars had something to do with it, but when researching further I found out many more interesting facts. For example; your driving style COTAP says that speeding and unnecessary acceleration, waste gas and money, and increase your carbon footprint. Carbonfund also backed this up saying that improved driving could save more than a ton of CO₂ per year. Added to this, tire inflation is also very important; properly inflated tires improve your gas mileage by up to 3%. Therefore however, driving does increase your carbon footprint, there is certain ways you can try and decrease the damages it is causing to the earth.

I already knew simple household things to do to improve your carbon footprint, such as; insulate your home and turn off lights whenever you are not in rooms etc. Added to this, reusing and recycling used products, is said to dramatically reduce your carbon footprint  Although I already knew this, it is something I could improve in my daily life.

Something I was not aware of was that where you buy your food from can have an effect on your carbon footprint. It has been estimated that 13% of U.S greenhouse gas emissions result from the production and transport of food. Transporting food requires petroleum-based fuels, and many fertilizers are also fossil fuel-based. therefore by eating locally produced food you will be supporting your local businesses and also reducing your carbon footprint. (COATP.ORG)

An interesting point I found from Carbonfund was that; Only 40% of the average American’s carbon footprint is due to their direct energy use. The other 60% is indirect; it comes from everything we buy and use—goods and services. I did no realise how much our lifestyle choices had an impact on our carbon footprint.

On the 1st of September 2009, the guardian published an article on how to reduce your carbon emissions. It states that Every year, each person in the UK is, on average, responsible for about 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. This figure is frightening.  The article outlines many of the points I have already mentioned above, but it  talks about ‘the gadgets’ we  buy are another major source of carbon emissions. Our mobile phones, computers, games consoles and DVD players are packed with components from all over the world, often containing trace amounts of precious metals that have taken huge amounts of energy to refine. The best study on the footprint of home computers was carried out by Apple; it showed that a single new desktop machine created emissions of almost half a tonne during its manufacture. The simple rule is: buy less stuff, keep it longer and then ensure it is properly recycled; there are many organisations that will do this for you.

From doing this task, I now realise I had a very limited simplistic knowledge of what I thought caused your carbon footprint. I have gained knowledge from this that I will now be able to use to make better decisions in the future, such as;

• ensure my car tyres are correct
• drive to set guidelines and avoid harsh accelerating
• recycle used electronic goods, there is organisations available to do this for you
• turn off lights and electrical appliances when not needed
• buy local produced food and try and eat less meat and dairy
• keep house hold appliances up to date, such as replace your fridge every 4 years.

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Interdependence

Key Learning –  Study Task

Our directed study task required us to read various documents and watch different videos around the topic of sustainable seas. We researched areas such as: Biodiversity, economy & industry, community impact and also political elements.

Biodiversity: A variety of animal and plant life in one habitat.

Economy & industry: fishing provides a source of fresh, nutritious food and supports remote rural communities around the Scottish coast.

Community Impact: 3 billion people rely on fish as a source of protein. Fish markets is a place for people in a community to meet and brings a sense of community spirit.

Political Elements: Fishing in Scottish sea spans international boundaries can lead to complicated interactions.

Key Learning – Soil Input

The most useful thing I learned during the soil input was ways to learn soil in other curricular areas. Some examples of this are below-

Expressive Arts- painting and dying different types of soils

Maths- measuring the yields from different types of soil management practices

RE – Our rights and responsibilities to look after our soils & ensure the plants well being.

Key Learning – Farm Visit

During our time at Stranhead farm we learned about how technology is taking over the originally method of farming. Technology was playing a huge part at the Stranhead, we learned that the dairy cows at this farm do not go outside, rather they live under the farm roof all their lives. The technology implemented in the farm, milks the cows, feeds them and recognises when they need more food, it also cleans the floors that the cows are sleeping/ walking around on, added to this there is blinds that operate depending on how much sun light there is, the technology also adds more straw when needed. It was an educating visit where I learned many facts about farming that I never knew before.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/Practice –

From these different inputs I now have a better appreciation for soils and the importance they have in what I consume and how I live. From this I will try and consume products that have the certified catering mark, such as the soil association food for life catering mark.

Added to this, in regards to sustainable seas, there is also marks on food that show fisheries are acting in a eco friendly and the most effective way possible. This is called the common fisheries policy and when buying fish I will ensure it has this label on it and try and encourage other family members to do the same.

Areas of Interest to explore further/develop –

When I have a class of my own I would consider visiting Stranhead farm as it offers an educating insight into technology and farming, allowing the children to see it in front of them and see the technology working would be fascinating and enrich their learning. Spending time at Stranhead allowed us to ask professionals many questions, therefore as a teacher it would be beneficial to work with these professionals so the children are getting the best educating possible and giving them important real life learning by giving them the opportunity to ask real farmers the questions they may have. This type of class trip would be extremely educationally and allow for many areas of learning to be explored when returning to the classroom.

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Disasters

Key Learning –

Disaster Classification = Considered a disaster when costs more than $1 million or 100 deaths (Burton et al,1978)

There are many types of natural disasters, such as – Earthquake, floods, Hurricanes etc.

Although these disasters are naturally occurring, humans do have an impact on them from things such as – urbanisation, global warming and land use.

The government play an enormous part of how quickly and efficiently a community can respond and react to natural disasters. It is there role too:

• Prepare communities and urban areas
• Hazard assessment
• Physical structures to support
• Communicate procedures e.g. evacuation
• Respond quickly
• Search and rescue – Food
• Sanitation – Healthcare
• Work with communities and international partners
• Disaster response
• Rebuilding of infrastructure and communities
• Working to rehome displaced populations

There are many key International Orgs, such as – United Nations, WFP, WHO and many more. There role is –

• Intergovernmental
• Work with governments within and between nations
• Support government actions
• Prioritise humanitarian needs involved in disasters/conflicts

NGOs are also very important, such as save the children and red cross. There role is –

• Unbiased approach
• Politically neutral
• Although generally liberal agenda
• Subject to political pressures
• Work alongside governments (not directly with)
• Prioritise humanitarian needs
• Work to prepare communities
• Education
• Communication
• Provide relief efforts and aid
• Supplement aid from governmental sources
• More flexible
• Work effectively with communities
• Distribute aid fairly

Through looking at case studies it is clear that depending on Aid and Political decisions, it has a massive impact on the chance of a community surviving these disasters and how quickly they can get back to some form of normality.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

Through learning about this, it does make you feel very lucky about where you stay and how much these types of disasters can affect people.

Added to this, from reading many case studies and how sad some of the stories are I would be more inclined to give money to the NGOs that support countries affected by natural disasters.

Areas of Interest to explore further/develop –

I believe children should be learning about disasters, although it may not affect us right now in this country, they need to have a knowledge about what people go through in countries that are affected by these disasters.

Through teaching a topic like disasters to children it also allows for cross curricular learning as you could bring in topics such as art, music, drama, history, literacy and geography.

Some activity examples are –

Children performing drama techniques such as miming, to demonstrate how they would feel if this happened to them.

Children could learn about the history of these countries and investigate the first ever natural disaster and could then present this back to their peers, this has many benefits to children and improves many skills.

Lastly, children could play musical instruments to create sounds that might of been heard during the time that the natural disaster hit the community.

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Learning Log on Energy

Key Learning:

Fossil Fuel Dependency-

• Generation of Electricity -coal, oil or gas
• Transport Fuels – petrol, diesel, kerosene,lpg
• Cooking and heating – natural gas
• Plastics – polythene, pvc, polyurethane

Sustainability-

• Years of production left in the ground with the most optimistic reserve estimates:
• Oil: 1,277,702/77/365= 45 years
• Gas: 1,239,000/47/365= 72 years
• Coal: 4,786,000/52/365= 252 year

 

• Temperatures have already increased by nearly 1° in the past 100 years and are projected to rise more quickly over the next hundred years
• Global polar bear populations are likely to decline 30 percent over the next 35 to 50 years as Arctic areas are affected.

• We know that microscopic particles in the air allow water to condense as clouds
• In the 1960’s, concerns about air pollution lead to studies on effects of pollution on weather patterns
• Global dimming is described as the phenomenon of air pollutants reflecting back the sun’s rays as well as changing patterns of rainfall
• This is thought to be cooling the earth as well as masking the effects of global warming!

Practical session-

During the session we explored challenges and things we would have to take into consideration when doing activities with children.

We put yourselves into the position of the child and did the activities, this allowed us to think of positives and negatives and things to take into consideration when teaching.

 

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

From learning about the sustainability of fossil fuels I am now far more aware of the shortage. From this, I will take it into consideration when making choices which involve fossil fuels.

I have realised from this input I did have little knowledge or interest on fossil fuels, however now knowing about the shortage I have an appreciation of it and I am far more aware of the problem we are facing.  I never quite believed that they would run out, but research shows that oil could run out in the next 50 years if we continue acting in the way we do, this has made me realise that we all need to work together in improving our lifestyle choices and work to preserving our fossil fuels.

I enjoyed taking part in the practical session and allowed me to see the challenges from a learner and teachers point of view.

 

Areas of Interest to explore further/develop:

The practical session showed an insight into the many activities that can be done with children to interest them and consolidate their understanding on energy. I know feel more equipped to do such activities with children.

I feel I need to do more research around the topic of energy to develop a better understanding of the topic as a learner and also to influence children in the best way possible as a teacher.