Key Learning:

During the lecture we were introduced to the theme of energy, something which I was surprised about was how much we depend on fossil fuels; for the generation of electricity, transport fuels, cooking, heating and plastics. We depend on fossil fuels various times throughout each day without even fully thinking about it. Something else that shocked me was the number of years of production left of the current fossil fuels with Oil being the lowest with only 45 years left in the ground with the most optimistic reserve estimates, as a result of this it is important that we find viable alternatives of fossil fuels such as power vehicles, generating electricity and making materials. I had never heard of Bioethanol or Biodiesel before so I learned that they are types of biofuels; with Bioethanol engines need to be altered in order to use this whereas with Biodiesel engines do not require to be modified which I thought was vert goood. As a result of the energy debate I am now a lot more knowledgeable on the positive and negatives of having wind farms.

Impact on my views:

I learned a lot from the theme of energy as before the inputs I did not take much interest with regards to the use of fossil fuels, biofuels, renewable energy sources etc. The sessions impacted my thought and views because now before I did not think there was anything I could do that would affect the energy but now I realise that it is a massive issue and I am now aware how much I rely on the use of fossil fuels everyday without thinking twice about it. During the Energy Debate workshop many things had an impact on my views because I had never given the area of wind farms much thought until now, I now realise that there are a variety of different arguments for and against wind farms, however I am in favour of wind farms because overall I think they have a positive impact on renewable energies. From the practical workshops we took part in I now feel confident that I could do practical lessons with children on the different areas of energy and by doing these they are more likely to be engaged.

Next steps:

I have now gained a lot of knowledge on energy and the different ways I could teach it in the classroom which has been very benificial, however I still feel that I could learn a lot more about energies and therefore I am going to go over the different powerpoints again and have a look at the further reading in order to increase my knowledge even further.