Sustainable Development – Jill Andrew

Natural disasters is described effectively by Middleton (2013) – “natural hazards should be defined and studied both in terms of the physical processes involved and the human factors affecting the vulnerability of certain groups of people to disasters.” Natural disasters can be defined as uncontrollable events which have devastating impacts on the lives and environment of the area in which they occur. There are many different types of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and disease epidemics. Most of these can be related and if one happens it is possible that another will follow. A country that is less economically stable than a richer country is more like to suffer the consequences of the disaster with less help and resources.

During this input I had the chance to compare two case studies about Japan and Haiti I found that developing countries have less money and so less resources, meaning that their preparation for natural disasters is poorer. Poor preparation then leads to slower and less effective responses and this then means slower and often less effective recovery. Developing countries also often have fewer countries who are willing to help them, but it is these countries who rely most heavily on international aid.

Prior to my learning, I was unaware of the political impact on natural disasters. It has been proven that the economic status of a country can dedicate how the country prepares, responds and recovers from natural disasters. It is clear that in order to prepare for a disaster, countries must have the money, resources and organisation to be able to do so. As well as this to be able to respond to a disaster the government must have inter-national allies to receive help from in time of need. To be able to recover from a disaster, the country must work together and have an organised plan of how to do this.

Through the use of science experiments in the science input I increased my knowledge of this topic as well as gaining skills I could use as a future educator. We completed an activity using bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, fairy liquid and food colouring to represent a volcanic eruption I developed my ability to use and apply models. In addition to this, through the independent study task, my group and I had to deliver a presentation on Tsunamis. For a science lesson, we decided that pupils could make their own tectonic plates out of play dough and place them together as shown on a map of the tectonic plates. This would not only allow children to understand the way Tsunamis work but allow them to develop the skill of making and applying a model.

This input of natural disasters allowed me to develop my understanding of the topic as well as think about the various different lessons I could use in a classroom.

I have attached above the school that I am on placement at. As you can see, I have clearly labelled the main items that relate to the learning of sustainable development. As well as this, the school promotes sustainable education in many other ways. This includes an eco-committee that I will talk more about later on. There are many recycling bins throughout the school although I noticed that in the staffroom there is not which is resulting in a lot of food going to waste.

As identified in the picture there is an astro-pitch available for the children to play in at break and lunchtime as well as during teaching time as part of outdoor learning. This can be classed as green space for the children to play in, to prevent them playing on grass and getting covered in dirt. The school playground is very large with fencing all the way around it to keep the children safe. There are a few benches for people to sit at but not enough for a full class to participate in outdoor learning sitting at these benches. In discussion with the teachers of the school about this situation they agreed that they don’t usually take their classes outdoors to teach but take them outside to play as a reward. After talking to the children they said that they very rarely go outside and when they do its for short time and they only get to play with skipping ropes or chalk to draw on the ground with. I feel that this reflects teacher’s levels of confidence and the stress or trouble they could have when outdoors. However, I feel that as a future educator we need to stop thinking of the barriers to children’s learning and start thinking of new, interactive ways children can experience their learning such as outdoors learning.

I spoke to two pupils in my class that are part of the eco-committee and asked them how they help the school. The pupils didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the subject and didn’t know much information or knowledge to do with the committee.This primary school has an eco-committee set up to support sustainable development. The committee meets up once a month to come up with new strategies and ways of being environmental friendly. The school has previously set up bird feed boxes that hang along the fence at the rear of the school, these boxes are designed to help feed birds throughout the winter and give the birds a habitat. I particularly noticed that these boxes have been designed for small birds that might not be able to source food as well as bigger birds. The eco committee has also started a litter picking campaign for any volunteers from primary 1 to primary 7 to litter pick around the school grounds after school once a month. This campaign has been made to prevent pupils from littering around the school as well to promote the dangers of litter dropping and how this can affect the environment we live in.

Following on from this to protect the children as well as climate change which is a major factor within sustainable development, the school has recently ran a competition for pupils to participate in. Each pupil in primary 4 to 7 had to create a poster promoting road safety or cycling to school. After asking pupils about this, the feedback I received was that cycling to school can help the environment as there bikes do not produce harmful gases and cars do which eventually pollutes the environment.

Another major factor I noticed about the school was every light switch within classrooms or corridors in the school had small green bits of card stuck above it reading ‘Switch off!’. These cards are put here to not only remind children to turn off the lights but to remind any adults to switch off the lights when leaving the classroom. I feel that this strategy is extremely effective as it gives a small reminder to everyone to save energy that in turn will save additional costs within the school.

Recycling bins is another aspect that this school uses to promote sustainability. Each classroom within the school is provided with a blue and brown bin. The blue bin is used for paper and the brown bin for general rubbish. I noticed that each child is aware of these recycling bins and know exactly what should go in each. I was informed that these bins get emptied everyday for recycling.

Following on from this, it is clear that this school offers many opportunities of sustainability however I feel that a lot more can be implemented in different ways. After discussing with the pupils and the teachers within the school, it has came to my attention that a lot of them are unaware of sustainable routes within the school and I feel that this is something that needs to be addressed a lot more.

Interdependence main definition is the way in which two or more living things depend on each other to grow and remain healthy. There is three components to this topic that can impact the world we live in: environmental interdependence, social interdependence and economic interdependence.  Touching on environmental interdependence, it is becoming increasingly apparent that every species has a function to fulfil in the sustaining web of life. A food web is basically a process that many animals and humans go through to gain their food. For example, plants getting eaten by small water insects, that get eaten by small fish, who get eaten by larger fish who then gets eaten by us, humans. However, after our directed group study task it has become apparent that the ocean is increasingly becoming an area of pollution caused by humans. due to chemicals being leaked into the water and rubbish being dumped, we are causing harm not only to our wildlife but to ourselves. These dangerous chemicals not only kill the fish but can be spread through the  for web causing a mass amount of harm. As well as this, the ocean can be a place that suffers from interdependence due to over fishing and hunting. This not only impacts interdependence environmentally but also economically as fisherman are being forced to sell their boats due to the little amount of income they are getting, in some cases not even enough to feed their family for a week. This was part of our research for our directed group study task that can be shown here in an infographic:

https://padlet.com/louise_mckie/pybl2vzwsv0b

To be able to complete this infographic, we had to complete the reading within the Living Blue Planet report 2015. I had to pick out relevant and key information within the text which developed my reading skills, research skills and my critical literacy skills. I also had to analyse the graphics within the text and look at certain pictures to gain some understanding of the text.  Overall, I developed my ICT skills as I have never created an infographic before and it took some time to get use to the format.

In this first input of the interdependence topic, we visited two different local farms- an organic farm and a technology based farm. The biggest lesson that these farms taught me is that farmers rely heavily on the economic factors of interdependence to be able to make an income. The first farm I visited was a highly commercial farm that used technology as their main source of production for milk. The cows were also kept indoor and a fully automated feeding system was used to deliver the cows feeding. The second farm I visited was a smaller farm with more traditional ways of farming. The farmer explained that he converted to organic after times of financial strain. Due to money problems, it was predicted that countries such as China was in demand for more milk to be produced. However, unfortunately this was not the case and farmers were producing way too much milk to sell that it ended up going to waste. Many farms all over the UK were put out of business due to the price of milk being dropped to force people to buy it. Following on from the farm visits, we were asked to compare the two different farms and the methods they used to support their income. This input has allowed me to develop the skill of observation and comparison. To be able to justify why the farmers are using two very different techniques and why they are both working well. Overall, I feel that this part of the input was extremely interesting and i feel that this is something that children would love to do. By visiting the farm with the kids they could complete a follow up activity for first level learners by getting them to write a story based on the perspective of a cow living on one of the farms. They would have to explain their daily routine and their feelings about the farm. The E’s and O’s I would use for this lesson would be:

This blog will follow my journey through the sustainable development module, showing my understanding and thoughts on each input.