Heather Walley UWS ITE ePDP

B.A. 2
Learning Log

Key Learning:

In the morning lecture we went over questions about the assignment which I feel really helped my understanding of the task.
Andrew’s class showed us the importance of electricity in everyday life and we learned how it works. We learned how to make an electrical circuit and set light to steel wool. Below is a picture of the magnet we made with a battery.

In Louise’s class we researched the pros and cons of wind energy and split into two teams to debate on whether it is a positive or negative thing. Here is a picture of my group’s positive impacts of wind energy:

We spoke in the plenary about what the potential complications of these activities could be in the classroom, these are a few that were discussed:

• not being able to understand instructions on paper.
• one or two children taking over the group and doing all the work themselves.
• children finding it easy to not take part because someone else in their group will do their share of the work.
• the materials being too hard to work with.

• Interdependence
• Soil
• Farm Visit

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

After the lecture and workshops last week and reading the government’s Climate Change (Scotland) Act, I realised how much our actions in life affect the environment and the changes our planet is going through. Reading through the Act has made it a lot clearer to me how much really needs to be done if we can achieve the 2050 target of ‘the net Scottish emissions account for the year 2050 to be at least 80% lower than the baseline.’ I work in retail and have seen a huge difference in the way in which people use carrier bags. The charge of 5p per bag was a great idea as it stops people taking extra unneeded bags and entices them to reuse and recycle their own ones.

My results of the WWF carbon footprint calculator was 188%

This week in class we spoke about climate change. Before the class I thought the same as most people think: that climate is the weather. I learned though, that climate is the average weather at a given point and time of year, over a long period (typically 30 years). Whereas the weather changes daily.

After the lecture in the morning, we had a workshop with Andrew where we learned more about climate change and its effects on the earth. We saw how the water cycle works as well as how clouds and tornados are formed. I found this workshop very interesting as we got to see the experiments but we also spoke about how we could do them in a classroom setting with children.

In louise’s class we learned about what politics has to do with global warming. We watched a video which showed the amount of emissions which countries have given off over a series of time and it was quite astounding the rate that China’s emissions have been growing. We also learned how countries can trade oil etc for the right to give off more emissions which I was quite surprised that this is allowed.

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.

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