The Urban Environment Task
Physical Environment:
My local urban area is in Dumfries and Galloway in a small town called Stranraer. In Stranraer there is a very small town centre (see picture) with a few shops, hairdressers and cafes however the choice of shops is very limited, there is only one big Supermarket. The housing buildings in Stranraer are mostly semi-detached houses, a few areas of detached bungalows a few blocks of flats. Stranraer is quite a historic town with many old buildings such as old castles and churches. My Urban area is situated beside the sea which I have always loved and there are many beaches and sand dunes around the sea. The roads in the town are fairly quiet and there are no dual carriageways or motorways close by. There is a lot of greenery in and around Stranraer with many parks and a few forests.
Transport:
In Stranraer there is local transport buses which go around the housing estates and this is provided by Stagecoach Western. There is a train line next to the sea, this service never used to be very frequent but recently is has improved slightly and now there are trains to Ayr every 2 hours. In a small village which is around 7 miles from Stranraer there are two Ferry Ports which travel to Northern Ireland, Stena Line sails to Belfast and P&O sails to Larne, these Ferries are very frequent and there are around 7 sailings a day from each Port. As a result of these Ferry Terminals the roads going to and from Stranraer can get very busy with traffic. There are two main roads out of Stranraer, the A77 which goes North towards Ayr and Glasgow and the the A75 which goes East towards Gretna.
Community Spaces:
There are five Primary Schools in Stranraer and four of these has nursery’s, one of these schools is a Roman Catholic School. I attended Belmont Primary School which is the largest Primary School with around 300 pupils and also has an integrated learning centre. The secondary school, Stranraer Academy, has around 1,200 pupils. The Academy has recently been rebuilt in 2010 and it is now quite a modern school, I have attached a picture. Dumfries and Galloway college have a campus in Stranraer which offers a variety of different courses for local people. There is one library in Stranraer which is open Monday-Saturday and we have a museum which is open during the week and they carry out workshops and activities for young children in the school holidays.
Industry and Work:
There are a couple of big factories in Stranraer. There is The Caledonian Cheese Company and The McLelland Cheese Packing Factory which both employ a large number of people in Stranraer. Below is a picture of the two factories.
There is also the Helmet Integrated Systems Factory which employs a large number of people in my local urban area. Stranraer is surrounded by farms where a lot of people work, there are 3 hen farms around the countryside in Stranraer which produce a large amount of eggs on a daily basis for worldwide supermarkets. In my local area we do not have a great deal of large shops but we do have Morrisons, Tesco, Argos, New Look, The Factory Shop, Superdrug and a few more and these shops employ a lot of local people. There are a very large number of hairdressers and beauticians in Stranraer which all seem to do very well for themselves and are always busy. In Stranraer there are a lot of family run Restaurants in the town which are all lovely and fairly busy, a lot of of young girls and boys have part time jobs here.
Recreation Spaces:
In my local urban area there is a place called the Ryan Centre, which has a swimming pool, games halls, a gym and a theatre. The centre is well used for swimming lessons, aqua fit, sports clubs, dance classes, pantomimes and much more. There are a lot of young football teams which take place at some of the local parks in Stranraer which is very popular. There is not much more recreation spaces within my town.
Peri-Urban Space:
Stranraer is surrounded by the counrtyside and there are many farms and country rounds outside the town so therefore there are a lot of fields. There are only small roundabouts in my local area and there are no busy/main roads surrounding the town.
Population Density:
The Population in Stranraer is just under 11,000 so it is a small town. The Population Density in Dumfries and Galloway is 23 people per square km which is very low.
Air Quality:
The latest air quality figures in my local urban area is low (3), this shows that the pollution is low in Stranraer which is good because it is not too damaging to our health.
The Environment Learning Log
Key Learning:
During Week One we discussed the natural and urban environment. The Environment includes the air, land, weather, water, buildings and natural species. We talked about how feel feel about the environment, what we already know about it and what our past experiences and views about the environment are. We then went outside and explored the University Environment and worked in groups and looked for bugs, leaves, birds and lichen. This was interesting because we talked about how we could make the Environment topic relevant in the classroom and to make it more enjoyable for children to learn. We took bark and leaf rubbings with white paper and chalk which was enjoyable and I feel this is an activity children would enjoy. After this session I completed the Urban Environment Task, this was about reflecting and interacting with my local urban area and writing a blog about the physical characteristics, transport, air quality, the population etc.
Impact on my views:
In my Primary School we had a wildlife garden which was used on a daily basis, in the garden we had, plants, trees, vegetables and a couple of times a week each class would go out to the garden. We also went on some school trips to Kirkubright Wildlife Park and Culzean Castle which we went to for Environment and Wildlife topics which was interesting and this has made my experience quite positive. However, I am aware that going outside for some children is not always a positive experience, many schools do not focus on making the Environment Topic relevant and enjoyable for children which results in them being unenthusiastic about going outside. I enjoyed this weeks input and it was good to go outside and explore the Environment hands on, a lot of learning is done through textbooks, online and powerpoints now but the best way children are going to learn and engage with the Environment is if they can see it first hand. If children are introduced with a positive outdoor experience then this is more likely to be carried throughout their school experience and beyond. After discussing how to teach the Environment in schools it has made me aware that it is a very cross curricular are and can be made relevant in most subject areas.
Further Steps:
After this weeks input I have completed the two further reading tasks from the moodle site; Kemp – Exploring Environmental Issues and Scoffham – Primary Geography which were a good follow on from the session.
