Sustainable Development- Diversity

The last input of the module was focussed on the topic of Diversity. We looked at diversity in terms of bio-diversity and cultural diversity. Bio-diversity is the diversity in terms of different genetics, different species and different ecological aspects and how they all depend on each other to survive and evolve.

Learning Log

This week when learning about diversity, I was surprised to learn just how much everything depends on each other around us. For example, I had never thought about the decline and change that would occur if one piece of an environment or one species were to become extinct. For example, I had never thought about what would happen if coral were to die out in the ocean, I had never really thought about what would happen to the species that lived there or what impact the destruction of coral would have on the other aspects of the ecosystem such as the water and plants.
In terms of bio-diversity, I feel that I now have more of an appreciation for the world around us and will now think more openly and carefully about the impact that some actions may have on the eco-systems and species around us.

Cultural Diversity

This is diversity in the respect of different religions, cultures, morals and knowledge, as well as many other factors. Cultural diversity is something that I have thought about frequently due to recent cases of terrorism and debates about religion and culture but I had never really thought about the importance of cultural diversity. For example, I had never really thought about the range of aspects and knowledge that different cultures and ethnicities can bring to our own culture and country. Not only this, the diversity and knowledge that it can bring into schools.
In schools, children could learn about culture and diversity through different activities and topics such as different countries, festivals, languages as well as our own here in Scotland. I would have the class explore these topics through having wall displays, books, guest speakers and through exposing them to different parts of the culture such as real food and clothes. I feel that by having these sorts of activities and lessons, it will be easier for children to develop an integrated view of cultures in the sense that there does not need to be an ‘us’ and ‘them’ view but rather a view of looking at the differences in cultures but realising that we are all the same because we are all human beings with the same rights. If children are exposed to and know their rights from an early age, I think that they are much more likely to become involved in their classroom rules and have a much more open view to other cultures because they will realise that we all have the same rights.

Learning Log
This week in the module, we were learning about energy and how we use energy. We also discussed issues such as, how long finite sources will last us as well as looking to the future when these sources run out or become scarce. We then looked at other forms of energy such as wind, solar, wave and nuclear.
As a class, we then moved on to the two workshops of the day. Firstly, we took part in a science workshop which showed different experiments and activities that we could use to teach children about energy in the future. This included experiments which related to all the different types of energy.
From this workshop, I feel that I have developed skills in relation to skills as a future teacher. Through this workshop, I feel that I have developed more in the skill of organisation and creativity. I feel this way because I feel that after today, I have a better understanding of how I would set these activities up and how I could ensure that they ran smoothly through stations instead of whole class activities. I also feel that I have developed in creativity because I now have a better understanding of activities I could not only use, but how to implement them into different areas of the curriculum and of how to change parts of them to suit learners needs and skills.

Secondly, we had the opportunity to take part in a workshop which involved debating. We had to look at different sources about wind energy and pick out the key points and the positives and negatives of it. The class the split into two teams to debate, a for and against team. This task developed my skills mostly as a learner. I found that I have developed my skill of critical thinking/critical literacy because I was reading a text that I would normally struggle with and was able to make connections between the key points and the positive and negatives of the subject. I feel that I have also developed in confidence from the input because I was able to talk in front of people and contribute to the group about a subject I was not familiar with at all. Before this, I normally wouldn’t have had the confidence to contribute much about something I didn’t really know about due to feeling that I would look stupid or that my points would be automatically invalid but I have realised that this is not the case and that even if information is not totally accurate, I should still contribute to a group because they will most likely help me and support me.

Week 2- directed study task
I was absent from the second week of them theme, however, my peers have informed me of the learning involved and also the task that was set. This week, the class were learning about STEM Teaching (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This was delivered from a guest speaker from Onthank Primary School who is interested in STEM Teaching. The class informed me that the guest speaker talked about the importance and encouragement of making mistakes in order to build confidence in learning and in personal skills.
For the practical task, the class were challenged with making an anemometer and then delivering a lesson plan as though they had taught this lesson to a class. Although I did not take part in this task, I feel that the skills that could be developed through it could be initiative to read about STEM Teaching if not already known about, risk taking, lesson planning and a willingness to learn and resilience to and allowing mistakes.

Sustainable Development- Natural Disasters

For the past two weeks, we have been focussing on natural disasters in the Sustainable Development module. I thought that I knew quite a bit about natural disasters, however, after sitting in the inputs for two weeks, I have since discovered that this is not the case.

In the first week of the topic, we looked at what natural disasters actually were. We were looking at types of natural disasters which I thought I had a relatively good understanding of, such as tornadoes, hurricanes and volcanoes. We then began to look at other aspects that come with natural disasters such as response and preparation, government involvement and case studies/differences in countries.

I was very surprised to see how much preparation goes into preparing for a natural disaster. This is something I had never really thought about before and so I do feel that I have a better understanding of this crucial part of the topic after further research and learning about it in class. We also looked at two different case studies that used different preparation strategies with very different outcomes. I always thought that different parts of the world just got these disasters worse than others but after these workshops I have come to discover that this is not the case. Infact, it depends on how well prepared a country is before and during these disasters what the outcome of the country will be.

We also looked at teaching this topic and if we would feel comfortable teaching this to primary school children. I feel that children do need to learn about this topic to inform them about current news issues and for the future in general but in a controlled and safe way. I think that the material we use needs to be appropriate for the age group and must be child friendly, e.g- not using pictures of dead bodies or talking excessively about death rates etc.

Another activity we looked at in a workshop during this topic was implementing this into the curriculum. We looked at different types of experiments that we could carry out in the classroom which was very interesting. We looked at using baking soda and vinegar to create a replica of a volcano exploding lava, making fossils out of clay and using maps to locate where different disasters occur. These experiments and activities can be used in cross curricular activities such as writing about volcanoes, labelling parts of a hurricane, writing news reports about a disaster and so on.

For our directed study task, we were asked to create a presentation to present to the other groups in our section. I wasn’t looking forward to doing this but once I had done it I felt better and even during it I felt quite confident presenting to the class which I was surprised about. I also found it interesting to learn about the other groups finding on other natural disasters.

Learning Log

Before this topic I thought I knew mostly all I needed to know about natural disasters but I have changed my view on this substantially. I would like to teach this in a class but I would be very careful to approach it in a way that is suitable for the age level. I feel that children would gain a lot because the topic is so cross curricular. I feel that a skill I have improved upon during this topic is the skill of time management because we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the presentation we were asked to do. I did manage but I did have to manage my time very effectively which is something I will have to carry with me into my career as things can be thrown at us without warning. I think that the task benefited me as a result even though it was a bit of a struggle at the time. Overall, I have enjoyed learning more about this topic.