Climate Change
Our climate is continually changing.
This is a fact our society and the rest of the world cannot deny. However, the argument that comes with the discussion of climate change is; is it natural or is it due to our presence and the actions we take? During this topic this question was asked and discussed in create detail between myself and my peers. This is a great way to get people to share their views and opinions about what is happening to our planet. Through research we have measured our weather and how it changes, how the plates move, analysed what has come before use and are constantly discovering new creatures and locations.
Having legislation and policies in place to help our environment (Scottish Government, 2009) and creating opportunities to discuss our changing climate within the government helps benefit our current problems by finding solutions to them and making sure the rest of us follow along means we are benefiting our planet for us and future generations. We need these policies in place as our actions have consequences and they take on a domino effect, climate change affects; air quality, forestry, biodiversity, water, temperature and desertification.
Before starting this topic, I had only a basic level of knowledge about our weather and climate and how they change. However, by doing this topic my knowledge about the basics has improved and I feel more confident talking about the changes and effects, problems and possible solutions of climate change now that I have more of a background in it. Getting the opportunity to speak to my peers and discuss different aspects of climate change such as the consequences of it and how they effect each other; allowed us to share what we know, develop what we already knew and learn new information that we didn’t know.
During the workshops we got the chance to carry out different activities that allowed us to experience what it would be like for the child in the classroom. This was useful because we got to see this topic through the children’s eyes and how they would feel during the activities. By using the Curriculum for Excellence: People, Place and Environment we can be share that we are giving the children every opportunity to learn about what is going on around them and be creative during lessons (Education Scotland, 2017). By doing these activities it also gave us the chance to think of how we as teachers could use these in a classroom and keep the children engaged and included by using the different resources. Some of these resources include videos, worksheets and fact files aimed at children so they can learn about climate change:
- Climate Change Areas Poster, available at http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/45228/mod_resource/content/1/Climate%20And%20Climate%20Change%20Poster.pdf
- Climate and Climate Change Booklet, available at http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/45227/mod_resource/content/1/Climate%20And%20Climate%20Change%20Activity%20Booklet.pdf
By giving us the opportunity to participate in a combination of lectures, workshops and independent materials, it allowed me to expand my knowledge by accessing resources and materials I might not have found myself. The combination of these three informative outlets allowed me to develop my critical thinking as the debate between natural causes or un-natural causes makes us as a society think about our actions and the consequences they could be having on our planet and our climate. It’s also helped me become more culturally aware as this is not just a problem for our society or country, the effects of climate change and global warming are affecting places and people all around the world. On a more professional level this topic has developed my collaborative working skills as during activates we had to work together and communicate as a team which is very important for working in a environment with children and other professionals.
The main points I learned from this topic are that there seems to be two very obvious sides as to whether climate change is natural or if we are the cause. However, there is a side that believes in both, due to changes in the climate that have happened previously they believe that the process is natural but also that the things we are doing on a daily basis could be speeding up or even increasing the effects of climate change. “We can’t predict the future, but we can know the present” (Sustainable Development, Module resource, 2018), it’s up to our generation to work together and find ways of protecting the world we are destroying do that the generations to come have a future.
Reference List:
Sustainable Development (2018) Climate Change. [Module Resource] Available at: Climate change module on moodle. (Accessed 10th October 2018.)
Education Scotland (2017) Social Studies, Available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/social%20studiesbenchmarkspdf.pdf (Accessed: 10th October 2018).
Scottish Governent (2009) Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2009/12/contents (Accessed: 10th October 2018).
