Theme:

 The Environment

The Urban Environment

Plants and Living Things

Key Learning:

 The Environment

First of all we were asked to define the Environment however I was completely wrong.We then learned the proper definition which is: “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”

After the lecture we headed to the workshop which also focused on aspects of the environment. We were looking at certain parts of the Environment in more detail including lichen, birds, bugs and leaves. During the workshop we focused on tasks specific to these areas. We had to explore the university campus and surrounding areas taking sheets with us which showed us the specific types of these subjects to look out for and try find. During this task I felt as though I was able to become more familiar with lots of different types of leaves that we walk by and take for granted every day. I feel as though this could be useful in a primary setting because children enjoy exploring and being away from a desk so they would be actively learning. I feel this could enable them to be more focused and interested.

The Urban Environment

Learning about the urban environment taught me how the natural environment within cities is being effected by pollution and other factors. I also learned that the environmental pressure for example emissions created are not always negative. They have been shown to actually help our social development.

I also created a blog post relating to the urban environment, where I described my hometown. This was helpful as it allowed me to delve further into my own urban environment and find out what it consists of.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

My views on the outdoors in general have not always been great. I didn’t enjoy going outside a lot at school so I was apprehensive about this type of learning. However after the lecture, I can see the benefit of introducing this type of outdoor learning into the classroom. I feel as if I have learned a lot about the environment and it was interesting to learn something new.

Areas of interest to explore further/develop:

I am going to look further into the Environment as do some further reading.