Month: October 2019

This weeks topic was Interdependence. Interdependence can be defined as the way that two or more living things depend on each other to grow and live healthy and there are 3 main components of Interdependence: Economic, Social and Environmental.

Economic interdependence is related to global market trading and how goods and services can be both produced and traded across the world.  This also relates to the stock market because the value of other currencies, such as the Euro, Dollar or Yen, has an impact on the UKs economy. We can also involved in economic interdependence by being a part of multinational financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund. An example of this is that the Eu is till supporting Greece to get out of its financial crisis of 2009.

We looked at social interdependence from the perspective that it can create cultural integration. For example, Hollywood Tv and Movies are broadcast across the world which firstly creates a demand for them and boosts the US economy and secondly transfers American beliefs and values onto the rest of the world. Many media and advertising corporations are dominated by America and Europe which means that it’s mainly western opinions and values that are being pushed on the rest of the world.

Environmental interdependence is recognising that everything and everyone has an important role in maintaining the web of life. If we change one part of a system then it can have detrimental implications on the other parts. We also need to look further than our local impacts and acknowledge that there are global responsibilities and repercussions because in a very basic sense, we all share the same resources, such as the air and the oceans, so we are all depending on each other to look after these resources.

Reflecting back after the initial input on interdependence, I had understood the environmental part as quite straight forward because of my previous science experience but the social and economic aspects were something I had never considered before. From first glance, these aspects do not look like interdependence but the more I thought about it and considered the examples given, it made more sense. I also thought that this was a good way to link with social science subjects in class and provides a different topic to look at with possibly older pupils.

I found this video and thought that it would be a really great resource to use in class. Although the video is about Ecosystems, it links into interdependence via food chains and it is easy to understand because the video was made by children.

As a part of the interdependence topic, we visited two different dairy farms. The first one we visited was a small organic farm with a small amount of cows and everything is done on site (the milking, production of the milk, etc).  One of the interesting points of the farm is that they sell directly to the public and are not stocked within big supermarkets. This was so they could cut out the middle man, keep their milk at a reasonable price and be able to make a wage for the farmers. We also visited another farm which was more technology based where everything was operated by machines and the cows were kept indoors. This made me feel a little uncomfortable as you like to believe that animals should be outside, in the fresh air, being able to roam about. The farmer explained that the cows are getting everything they need and are being treated fairly but it just didn’t sit right with me.

The farm visits helped to highlight interdependence in different ways. In the first farm, the farmers were dependant on the public buying their milk so they could make a living whilst the second farm was dependent on the help of the machines as there was no way that the farmers could manage something of this scale on their own.  Both of the farms provided an interactive and engaging way to tech the children about the topic of interdependence.

Using the Bookefield, S (1995)  Model of Reflection, on an autobiographical level, studying the topic of interdependence highlighted how important it is across every aspect of the world and how we can have such an impact, especially environmentally. If I was to reflect on interdependence as a pupil, it would help to show how all my actions have consequences, both positive and negative, and especially on a local level.

References

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass

 

We started off our new topic by going over the facts of climate change in our lecture. I had always thought that the term climate change referred to the weather and that was the reason for some of the crazy weather we had been experiencing over the past few years, for example, when we received snow in the March of 2018. However, climate is actually the average temperature in an area over a long period of time, typically 30 years. So the weather can change on a daily basis but if it doesn’t stay consistent, this is known as climate change. I also learned that climate change doesn’t just affect the weather, it has a much larger impact across the world. For example, it can have a devastating effect for agriculture. This could be in a variety of ways such as desertification,  which is a process where agricultural land on the edge of deserts becomes unusable,  crops being wiped out by floods and crop yields across the world decreasing. Climate change can also cause sea levels to change meaning that coastal land is at risk of disappearing and low-lying land is at threat as well as the 80 million lives of the people who live in these areas. Climate change is a very important topic because not only does it affect long term decisions for humans, like farming, but it also effects trends and patterns for animals and plants. This was something that stuck with me because it reminded me that it’s not just our planet, it belongs to them too and they also need to live with the consequences of our actions. We also briefly looked at Global Warming. This begins with greenhouse gasses travelling into the worlds atmosphere, becoming trapped and then acting like a blanket round the earth, heating it up. This is known as the greenhouse effect and the rising temperature of the earth because of this is known as Global warming.

Reflecting on my own knowledge of climate change and global warming, I wasn’t really aware that there was a difference and this was probably down to a lack of knowledge and ignorance. I remember as a child doing lots in school to help the environment, like recycling or walking to school, but it was not as big an issue as it is today. That’s why I think this would be a bigger concern for pupils nowadays because it’s their future that’s on their line. If I use the Brookefield,S (1995) Model of Reflection and reflect on climate change as a pupil, I would think that it should be a major topic within the school as it is such a current issue and that I could come up with more creative and out-the-box idea’s because I believe that anything can be possible. However, if I reflect on the same issue from the perspective of my colleagues and peers, I can understand that it can be easily ignored and you can feel like you don’t really make a difference if you’re the only one doing anything to help but I believe that this would motivate you more. It only takes one person to inspire somebody and make them think “yeh, I can do that too!”.

We also looked at science experiments that could be used to demonstrate climate like shaving foam clouds and tornado in a glass (videos below). These were all really fun to do and would be great for children in the classroom. One main point that I took away from the experiments is that you shouldn’t worry if they do not work all the time. Science is one of the only subjects where not getting a result or the result you wanted is still a valid result. Science can also help to create and develop skills that are not only vital in the work place, as a future teacher, but also in general life. Some of these skills include communication, problem solving, listening and time management and in my personal opinion, I believe these are all already strong attributes of mine.

A resource that I found interesting, both on a personal level and as something that could be used within the classroom was the WWF Footprint Calculator. It was a simple questionnaire that then told you how much of an impact you are having on the global footprint. I found my result quite shocking but once it was explained it to me, I was able to pick out some obvious but substantial changes that I could make that would make a major difference. The questionnaire was simple enough that pupils could do it and then as a class, come up with some strategies to help save our planet.

References  

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass

https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/