The Environment

The Urban Environment

Plants and Living Things

The Environment

After being asked to define the environment in the lecture, I learned the accurate definition which is as follows: the environment can be either the natural or urban environment, depending on if it falls into certain categories. For example, the natural environment consists of:

—  Land

—  Buildings

—  Natural species

—  Air

—  Water

—  Weather

The lecture then lead to the workshop which also focused on aspects of the environment, in particular we were looking at birds, bugs, leaves and lichen. For this task we had to walk around the university campus and surrounding areas with sheets which directed us at which specific forms and types of these subjects to pay particular attention to. This enabled me to become more familiar with the many different types of leaves for example which we see everyday without paying any attention to. This would be useful in a primary setting because the children would be actively learning and I feel they would be more focused and interested looking outdoors as opposed to learning about them indoors because they would not get the chance to use their senses to help them learn. 

The Urban Environment

The urban environment looks closely at how the natural environment within cities is being effected by pollution etc. I learned in the lecture relating to urban environment that it is forever growing. I also learned that the environmental pressure such as emissions which are created are not always negative. This is because they can actually help our social development.

I also created a blog relating to the urban environment, where I described my hometown which was helpful because it enabled me to learn more about the urban environment and what it consists of but it was also interesting because it was about an area which I know well and I am passionate about.

Plants and Living Things

The lecture about plants and living things was focussed mainly on hydroponics which is when plants and living things are grown in water with nutrients as opposed to in soil. We then went on to compare the difference between plants growing naturally in soil and growing in water with nutrients, whilst discussing the advantages and disadvantages with peers.

The workshop enabled us to be very involved because we were planting seeds in different solutions, following instructions such as using a wick, as well as covering the bottle with clingfilm in order for them to grow quicker. The point for this was to compare how quickly the seeds will grow over time in different solutions by measuring the stem. The workshop consisted of different stations within the room which we rotated round in groups. For example we went outside with paper and crayons and traced leaves, creating a print on the paper. We also dissected lilies to observe the different parts of a plant. This workshop was very fun and engaging because it was hands-on learning and I think children would be attentive during a lesson like this.

 My views have not been impacted fully because I generally do not enjoy the outdoors very much, however I can understand why some people do feel strongly about the outdoors because even after one lecture, I feel as though I have learned a lot and it was very intriguing learning about something I did not think I was interested in. It is still very early in terms of the module as a whole and I am positive that my views will be impacted further in a positive way, as the module progresses.  

 From the module so far, I would be most interested in developing my knowledge about hydroponics because it is the only aspect of the environment which I was not fully aware of, prior to the lecture. Having previously studied geography, I was aware of the natural and urban environment but I feel as though there is more chance for engaging activities relating to hydroponics as opposed to the urban and natural environment.