In the lecture we learnt what energy actually is and had a discussion about fossil fuel and the sustainability of fossil fuels in our world today. I learnt about their origins and the total use of energy we may use by 2040 which would be 59%. I never knew much about energy we use every day however after this lecture I was able to see the importance of energy.
In the first workshop we had an energy debate. This included the class splitting up into two arguments. One side FOR wind turbines and the other side AGAINST wind turbines. Before this debate I was not very confident in debates and never enjoyed debating. However, after this workshop I realised how I should have more confidence in debating as I was very good at it and by the end actually enjoyed it a lot. By completing this debate, I was able to hear many great reasons for both sides of the argument and felt I learnt more about energy through the debate through all the different facts. In groups we looked at different evidence to support the side given to us. For example our group was AGAINST wind turbines and so we looked at many different sources to find information to highlight why we should be against wind turbines.
I found that debating allowed us to improve our critical thinking skills, note-taking skills and many more. After this workshop I found research on why debating is good in education. Debating involves improving many skills such as confidence to speak in public, improve the ability to read an audience’s reactions but he said the most important skill they learn is hearing people’s views and responding to them (Clark, 2019). I feel as a student teacher I would reinforce this aspect of debate in many topics of sustainable development as I know from experience the positive impacts debating can have on people’s development skills.
In the second workshop we had the opportunity to learn much about electricity and what it is. We watched a video on youtube “The Introduction to Electricity”. It was extremely useful and I felt it was a great way to introduce the topic. I learnt from this video much about electricity: Electricity is the movement of charged particles called electrons. Moving electrons causes a lightning strike for example turning a light on. In this video we also learnt about a battery: A Chemical device designed to create the force needed to move electrons.
We got the opportunity to make a circuit including batteries, lightbulbs,switches and buzzers. I attached each part of the circuit to match the paper copy given to us (shown below in the workshop) after learning how a circuit is created using positive and negative signs on the switches etc. I was able to see the bulb turn on when all the parts were connected correctly. I found this extremely fun and very useful as was a chance to physically do it ourselves and see the outcome of electricity shown through a circuit. I feel I would be very confident teaching a class this topic. However, I feel that to give children the same opportunity to put circuits together, they would not be focused in the learning of this topic as a whole as they would be so interested in all the different parts in making a circuit.
In the second week of energy we focused on technologies in education and the impact of how people need to be skilled in technologies and also be aware of how positive energy can have in our world today. We learnt about how we as student teachers could teach this topic to class of young pupils. Our task was to build a moving-object in groups. My group chose to build a bus. We had to use different materials such as balloons, sticks, scissors, plastic wheels and many more. As shown below, you will see the outcome of this task. We were able to see the friction of the bus and the table and how by a push the bus moved. This highlighted the energy used to make the bus move along the table/floor. I found this an extremely effective way to show through physical activity how energy is used, it gives the opportunity to understand and use our thinking skills in making something that moves. It highlights the importance of energy in many different things we use and see every day such as transport. This is definitely a task I would use in the future to teach a class of children about energy in moving objects.
In this workshop, we spoke about how we would critically reflect with our pupils on this topic. This includes asking the pupils questions such as if they were engaged in the topic?, What was a surprising fact they learnt about Energy? and many more. As Brookfield (1998) highlights that asking learners these questions allows them to review their answers at the end of the topic/lesson which is a great way of reflection to see their progress of the topic being taught which I will use in the future when teaching.
References:
- Brookfield, S. (1998). Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. Available at: http://anitacrawley.net/Resources/Articles/Brookfield.pdf [Accessed 28 June 2020].
- Clark, A. (2019). Why debating still matters. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/06/why-debating-still-matters [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
- Introduction to Electricity(2006)Youtube video[online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJeAuQ7pkpc [Accessed 12 November 2019].
