Over the past two weeks we have been looking and studying the effects of climate change in the sustainability module. The basic definition of climate change refers to a significant change in the weather/climate over a long period of time. 
Our climate is continually changing. There is evidence for this change, for example, fossils which tells us that at certain times the world has been much warmer than it is now. Global warming is believed to be the biggest issue causing climate change. Scientists believe that the build-up of green house gases being released into the atmosphere creates and acts like a green house around the planet. This build-up of CO2 is believed to contribute to global warming through the greenhouse effect. This is why CO2 is called a greenhouse gas. The Ozone Layer is becoming thinner meaning that the sun’s ultraviolet rays are reaching earth and becoming more harmful to humans and the earth in general by heating up. These harmful rays can cause great risks of skin cancer, sun burns and other related skins conditions. To be able to keep a positive healthy and wellbeing of the human population we must be able to adapt to climate change (Wals, 2012).
A major effect climate change has is our weather. Agriculture is a topic that is significantly impacted by climate change due to extreme amounts rainfall. (Harrabin, 2013) states that since 1960 heavy rainfall is becoming more and more common in the UK. Due to this increasing rain, crops could be wiped out in low-lying areas that suffer from flooding. With less crops available on the world market, prices are likely to increase causing more struggles to area of deprivation. This does not only effects people who are buying these but the farmers who work every day ensuring that their crops are suitable but then to have them completely ruined can cause many problems to that farmer. Extreme weather has just recently become a major problem to many countries in the world due to Hurricane Irma. This hurricane began in the Caribbean wiping out almost everything insight moving towards Florida where they had to have a mass evacuation. Watching this on the news I felt completely helpless as I knew their was nothing I could to do help knowing that so many peoples homes and lives have been destroyed in this process. I feel that it is extremely important to show learners that this extreme weather is happening around the world without scaring them of course.
Another impact climate change has on our planet is the rising sea levels due to the melting in the ice in Antartica. As the world population increases, more people will be living in cities located on the coast and therefore, putting more peoples lives at risk from severe flooding. Antartica on the Edge video put this impact into a better perception for myself, living in ScotlandI haven’t found this to impact me as much but I now realise the importance thus has on other areas and how we should try our best to help. During our second input we had to consider the life of a school girl in Bangladesh. This activity allowed me to really see the effect climate change can have on people, for example severe flooding wiping out peoples homes and destroying the lives of so many people. It is believed that 17 million people in Bangladesh alone will be threatened by severe flooding. This proves that to be able to understand other peoples problems we must teach children the extreme issues happening on our planet.
In our first workshop we completed several science activities. I feel this workshop showed the importance of teaching children the science behind climate change to be able to prove that climate change is not a myth and peoples way of living can influence their thinking towards climate change (Wals, 2012). 
In one of the activities we had to create a model of an animal that could live in a particular biome and the consideration of adaptations the animal would need to survive. I loved this idea for a lesson in a classroom as it allows learners to have creativity as well as expand on their knowledge. Another activity my peers and I completed was about the weather. We completed an experiment that showed the outcome of cold air being more dense than warm air and therefore when warm air rises cold air pushes down creating a storm by pushing each other together. I found this extremely fascinating as it helped with my basic science skills of hypothesising and examining.
For the directed study task, i completed the Carbon Foot- print calculator on the WWF website. My carbon footprint is currently at 85% of my share. My food habits are taken up most of this by 41% which I was really surprised by. I do admit that I don’t usually waste my food properly and do have a lot of wastage. A tip that this website gave me was to buy more seasonal food which i agree would be more money saving and better for climate change.
In conclusion, climate change is a topic that impacts everyone in completely different ways. Through the past two weeks i have gained knowledge and understanding on the impacts climate change has on our planet. Wals (2012, p.365) believes:
“learning to live with risk, change and uncertainty and develop resilience and the capacity to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change are now necessary”
I now have the ability and confidence to pass my knowledge on to learners for them to understand what is happening in the world around us and how we need to adapt to the change.
I also gained a few tips for outdoor learning some being, always give parents of learners a warning in advance to allow children to come prepared and cut up a yoga mat into small squares for children to sit on outside. This allows pupils to gain full advantage of the outdoor enviroment despite the Scottish weather. During this activity we completed a sensory walk where we went a walk taking in our surroundings through our senses. For example, my group and I considered that the nearer the road we were the noisier it was where as the further away we were the more quieter and peaceful it was. Another activity I completed was to look and find certain bugs and insects in the environment and see how many I could find. I used the ready made bug hotel to do this as well as looking for places that I thought the most suitable habitat for insects would be. We then spoke about the different lesson ideas this could follow onto for example, a research task for groups to consider different insects, their habitats and diet. Following on from this, this activity can lead onto many other areas of the curriculum such as maths and literacy. This can be used in a maths lesson to count up the amount of insects they’re living in one area and compare that with another area using addition and subtraction and using pictures of insects as a form of symmetry . 
My group and I also came up with a literacy activity involving the insect hotel(see picture to left) where learners could rate the hotel and why other insects should or shouldn’t visit this. I feel these activities would be beneficial for not only the learners literacy and numeracy skills but developing their awareness of their natural environment.