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/#/
