Monthly Archives: November 2019

Community Project

Leave a comment

As part of the sustainable development module, the cohort were tasked on finding a project within our community that would be beneficial to our society. As sustainable development has mostly been about climate change and the environment, I was inspired by this and choose to do a beach clean on the 17thof November at Irvine beach behind Western Gailes Golf Club. It was a very different and unusual way for me to be spending my Sunday morning, but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected as it was very calm and peaceful – much different to the way I have ever seen Irvine beach. It gave me a few hours just to reflect on a lot of things on my own and allowed me to understand a lot more on why this beach cleans happen.

I was really disappointed though, at the amount of litter I seen spaced across this area of the beach. There were bottles, nappies, food wrappers, empty carrier bags and much more – even items like child’s toys and clothes which could easily have been taken home after their visit. It has kind of harmed my faith in some of Irvine’s people as almost everyone knows the harms that leaving litter on a beach can have but they still choose to do it.   One of the main environmental impacts leaving litter on beaches has is its impacts on marine life and marine habitats. Litter and debris left on a beach can be blown into the sea and be ingested by marine life as it can be mistaken for a food source. For instance, plastic bags floating on the sea surface can resemble jellyfish which are a food source for many species of fish and turtles. Once ingested, materials such as plastics can cause considerable harm to a marine animal’s digestive system. Beach litter can also cause suffocation and entangle marine animals. One of the other problems associated with beach litter is that, once deposited on the seabed, it will take a long time to break down and disintegrate and will thus, remain there for a long period of time.(Department of the Environment Government of Gibraltar, 2013)

While in conversation with some of the people who run this beach clean at Irvine, they also mentioned that although beach cleans help with saving the environment, they also have an impact on the volunteer’s mental health. I understood what they meant as I’ve discussed above it was a very peaceful time for me, but I also found a study by Erin O’Neill at the Marine Conservation Society (2018) which backs it up. Early research showed that going to the coast (regardless of the activity you pursued) offered numerous benefits, including an improvement in mood. Interestingly, it also indicated that taking part in a beach clean actually enhanced these benefits. Specifically, participants doing a beach clean reported as having a greater experience and found it more meaningful than other seaside activities, including rock pooling and a coastal walk. Volunteers reported feeling refreshed and as though they had a stronger connection to the natural world after a beach clean, as well as perceiving the beach to be visibly cleaner. They also felt more informed and concerned about marine litter. This portrays that for many volunteers, even though they are having an impact on the environment they also really enjoy the time spent doing It and in the long run it ultimately helps their mental health.

Relating back to primary teaching, I would love to do this activity with a class full of children when doing a topic related to the environment. Although it would take a lot of planning and risk assessments it would give the children a bit of quiet time (which some of them may not get at home) while allowing them to learn about the environment and how they can do their bit to help save it. There was a lot of children at this event with their families and seeing how much they all seemed to enjoy it made me think about when I have my own classroom. I researched the GTCS Professional Standards (2006) and found a few which would relate to this activity:

  • demonstrate that they can select and use a wide variety of resources and teaching approaches, including digital technologies and outdoor learning opportunities;
  • demonstrate an ability to work co-operatively in the classroom and the wider learning community with staff, parents and partner agencies to promote learning and wellbeing.

Overall, this experience benefitted not just the environment and its species, but it also benefited me as a person and student teacher. I laughed when participating in the beach clean as most of the time I was thinking about how this activity would work with a class of children and how I could link it into their learning. It was a great experience and one I would definitely be inclined to do again.

 

Department of the Environment Government. (2013) The Environmental Impacts of Beach Littering. [Blog, Online] Available: https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/new/sites/default/files/1/15/EnviroWatchIssue9.pdf. [Accessed: 25 November 2019]

GTCS Professional Standards. (2006) Standard for Initial Teacher Education [Online] Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/the-standard-for-initial-teacher-education.pdf[Accessed: 25 November 2019]

O’Neill, E. (2018) Can Beach Cleansbe Good for Your Mental Health? [Online] Available: https://www.mcsuk.org/news/beach-cleans-health[Accessed: 25th November 2019] 

 

Energy Use

Leave a comment

Energy is one of the things we use (and take for granted) every single day, but we never take a second thought on where it comes from or how it actually works. For the last two weeks of the sustainable development module I, through the lecture and workshops, was able to broaden my knowledge on energy and what it actually is. It is defined by the U.S. EIA (2019) as the ability to do work. Although I did National 5 physics in school for a year and learned about energy it really wasn’t my strong point and I didn’t think at the time it would’ve been useful for my future career – I was very wrong. Due to this, I don’t have a vast amount of information on this subject, but I found these inputs informative but also very enjoyable as I was able to discover and discuss new facts I would never have known before. Although I never found energy as a strong point I was surprised by the amount of my peers which I sat with and how much knowledge they had on the subject – some of them were interested in how renewable energy helps climate change while others had solar panels on their homes.

 

Only 20 years ago, the world relied massively on fossil fuels in order to power our countries, cities and towns but since scientists have discovered renewable sources and figured out how to utilise it, in the UK it now accounts for 20 percent of our total energy generated. (Biedron, 2019). We rely on fossil fuels for a lot of our daily tasks. For example, the petrol and diesel which runs our cars, coal or oil to generate electricity and natural gas for cooking and heating our homes. But thanks to these renewable sources we now have alternatives which are better for our planet and are ultimately one of the only ways we can help to fight against climate change – electric cars which reduces the use of petrol and diesel, wind power and solar power to generate electricity and biodegradable and food waste being burnt and turned into heat energy. If scientists never implemented the usage of renewable energy in 50 years we would have run out of oil and in 54 years we would have run out of gas (Business Standard, 2015). This portrays that we, as a planet, mainly within the past 2 centuries have used up almost all of the fossil fuel the earth has. This is why it was crucial for scientists to come up with new ways for energy which also didn’t damage the earth as much as fossil fuels have done.

 

One of the workshops I found extremely interesting and useful was Louise’s debate in week 1 of the topic. We discussed as a section alternative energy sources and what our opinions on them were. It sparked a heated debate between myself and my peers as we spoke about one main renewable energy type, wind turbines, and if we believed them to be a viable alternative to fossil fuels. It was interesting to hear many different perspectives in the idea of renewable energy and I wasn’t surprised at the amount of people who are for it and agree it is a much better solution. This workshop allowed me to build many skills needed for primary teaching including skills like debating, inquiring and incisiveness. In teaching you must be incisive as when in a classroom if a child asks you a question you must give a clear answer using any knowledge in that area you have. As a student teacher, I must also look at the GTCS Standards for Registration (2006) and a standard which relates to this debate topic is communicate the purpose of the learning and give explanations at the appropriate level(s) for all learners;

  • stimulate learner participation in debate and decision-making about issues which are open-ended, complex, controversial or emotional;
  • demonstrate effective questioning strategies;

This lesson, but also the whole module, has had many different ways of linking to other curriculum areas; science and art are just a few. For example, when in Andrews workshop about energy we created cars out of different materials to demonstrate how physics work and how our cars produce energy in order to move. This is an ideal lesson to do with children at the upper end of a primary school, it’s fun, interactive but also portrays clearly about the use of energy and physics. An example of a Curriculum for Excellence(n.d.) Experiences and Outcome which relates to this topic is: Through exploring properties and sources of materials, I can choose appropriate materials to solve practical challenges. SCN 1-15a

Now I have completed not only the topic of energy, but I have also finished the whole sustainable development module I can fully reflect on the benefits it has had on me. When this module began, I was sceptical about how much I would enjoy it as it has been something, I have never bothered with but when thinking back I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I am now much more knowledgeable on the subject and have broadened and built many skills i.e. my critical thinking has improved greatly and so has my confidence. I now am excited to be able to use all the theory and also lessons I learned from this module within a classroom.

 

 

Biedron, T. (24 April 2019) Renewable Energy in the United Kingdom[Blog, Online] Available:https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/2018/03/renewable-energy-in-the-united-kingdom[Accessed: 18 November 2019]

 

Curriculum for Excellence. (n.d.) [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf[Accessed: 19 November 2019]

 

GTCS Professional Standards. (2006) Standard for Initial Teacher Education [Online] Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/the-standard-for-initial-teacher-education.pdf[Accessed: 19 November 2019]

 

U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2019) What is energy?[Online] Available: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/what-is-energy/[Accessed: 18 November 2019.]

Disasters

Leave a comment

Disasters

My last two weeks of Sustainable Development has had a viewpoint on natural disasters – how they are caused and how they affect humans and our environment. According to the ‘Guide to sanitation in natural disasters WHO(1971) A natural disaster is an act of nature of such magnitude as to create a catastrophic situation in which the day-to-day patterns of life are suddenly disrupted and people are plunged into helplessness and suffering, and, as a result, need food, clothing, shelter, medical and nursing care and other necessities of life, and protection against unfavourable environmental factors and conditions. Natural disasters can come in many forms for example, hurricanes, diseases, floods and tsunamis just to name a few. Disasters is probably the topic in which I know the most about from learning about them in school and also as they happen frequently it is on the news often where they describe the effects and causes of these natural disasters. Through discussion with my peers I discovered they also feel the same and apart from a select few, most of us felt that disasters are the topic we felt most confident about. Throughout these two weeks, I have managed to expand my previous knowledge of natural disasters but also improved many skills I have.

 

Disasters, in my opinion, is an extremely important topic to teach children about because unlike other sustainable development topics we have studied, disasters have the capability of destroying towns and killing humans in a matter of seconds. Children learning about these disasters gives them the knowledge of what disasters could occur where they live but also give them an insight into how to protect themselves if they are ever in the situation of a natural disaster. There are five different types of natural disasters: geophysical(earthquakes, tsunamis etc.), hydrological(avalanches and floods), climatological(extreme temperatures, droughts and wildfires), meteorological(cyclones and storm/wave surges) and biological(disease epidemics and insect/animal plagues). Each disaster is just as dangerous as another and all have the capability of killing thousands and destroying our environment. One of the worst natural disasters ever recorded happened in Haiti in 2010. A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, 2010 and approximately 3 million people were affected. Around 250 thousand lives were lost, and 300 thousand people were injured(Kathryn Reid, 2018). As Haiti is an underdeveloped, struggling country they are still trying to fix their country but thanks to aid from international agencies and private donors over $16 billion has been allocated to help them(Kathryn Reid, 2018)

We started to learn about all the different types of disasters and what affects they have. Andrew also discussed how to prepare, respond and recover from these disasters and spoke about how we would teach these aspects to children. This led to us being tasked with creating a power point in order for us to practise our teaching to small groups. My group created a power point on hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones which I extremely enjoyed, and it helped me to build up a lot of my personal skills which will help me in the classroom. We also had to include tasks suitable for children in first level and this gave me an insight into what it will be like creating tasks for a classroom. It firstly allowed me to be more digitally literate as I was in charge of creating the power point and although I have used it before, this was the first time I had created such an informative and long power point. This will be extremely handy when in the classroom as now a days almost everything is digital. I also, when presenting, managed to build up my confidence and I noticed that since the last presentation I did I am now much more able to speak in front of people and use a lot more eye contact and gestures when speaking. This is obviously some of the most crucial skills needed for teaching as if I am at ease and confident  when teaching the children, it allows them to learn better and as I have good body language the children will feel happy to approach me. According to the GTCS Professional Standards(2006), these skills I learned through the microteaching task relates to 2.1.2 Communicate effectively, using a variety of media, to stimulate pupils and achieve the objectives of lessons. The expected features of this point are:

  • Demonstrate that they are able to use appropriate strategies to motivate and sustain the interest of all pupils during a lesson.
  • Demonstrate that they can communicate with pupils clearly and offer explanations in a stimulating manner.
  • Demonstrate that they can question pupils effectively and respond to their questions and their contributions to discussions.

As for the children, when learning about natural disasters they can research previous disasters. This relates to SCN 1-20a – experiences and outcomes. I have contributed to discussions of current scientific news items to help develop my awareness of science. This will allow them to understand how frequent these disasters happen. Curriculum for Excellence (n.d.)

This blog has shown just how knowledgeable I now am towards the subject and also which crucial teaching skills it has helped me to improve.

This is a resource in which Andrew showed us which would be useful to use in a classroom setting.

Microteaching –

This is the powerpoint my group created for the micro teaching task.

 

Curriculum for Excellence. (n.d.) [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf[Accessed: 4 November 2019]

GTCS Professional Standards. (2006) Standard for Initial Teacher Education [Online] Available: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/the-standards/the-standard-for-initial-teacher-education.pdf[Accessed: 4 November 2019]

Guide to sanitation in natural disasters WHO. (1971) Guide to sanitation in natural disasters WHO. [Online] Available: https://www.who.int/environmental_health_emergencies/natural_events/en/[Accessed: 1November 2019]

Reid, K. (2018) 2010 Haiti earthquakes: Facts, FAQs, and how to help. [Online] Available: https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2010-haiti-earthquake-facts[Accessed: 3 November 2019]