Everytime I used to visit the local Dumas beach, more than enjoying the cool breeze and the aesthetics of the waves meeting and colliding with each other and the beach sand, I see litter and trash everywhere. Beach is a place where we can connect with the surroundings and appreciate its beauty, but all I see is people littering and throwing garbage here and there, which affects me deeply.  Thus, with the want to visit a clean and beautiful beach, I participated in a beach clean up along with a couple of friends where we went on 3 mornings on weekends and picked up as much garbage as possible.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Organization was key during this experience, we all needed to meet together at a common location at a common time, I organized myself with a timeline and through a common group on social media where the time and location for the clean up was mentioned, this process reduced chances of miscommunication to a huge extent. I am usually not an organized person, I do not follow an organized timeline, I tend to just do things when I feel like doing it, which is why it was slightly difficult to initiate the planning of this experience, completing tasks on time was difficult as I had hard deadlines. I discovered my self-management skills and organizational skills during the course of this experience. After this experience, I feel planning new projects and initiating them will be a lot easier in the future as this was a very educational experience and gave me a lot of insights on planning and preparation. It is very important to know how to plan and initiate activities as they help us exercise our self management skills and help us develop a habit to meet deadlines.

LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Working with others is generally very easy for me as I believe that together everyone achieves more, dividing tasks is a lot more convenient and it helps us finish tasks quicker. It was very easy for me to work with my friends during the planning and execution of this project, coordination with them and coming up with dates and time wasn’t difficult for me. All my friends were easy to deal with, there were cases wherein we had to postpone dates because of some other events on those days but all of it was taken care of easily as the communication was clear. It is very important to work collaboratively as everyone brings a new skill set to the group which could be very beneficial with planning projects like these. Teamwork and clear leadership was very crucial, as there are a lot of people, there will be contrasting opinions, which is why respecting the leader’s decision was important, we as a team decided a leader and respecting his/her decision was discussed as a team. 

LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

The filthy beaches are not only unpleasant to look at but have a greater impact on the environment. When we ignorantly throw garbage around the beach, it has a negative impact on the surrounding ecosystems and the environment in general, the short term impacts might not be visible, promoting people to litter even more but it will be very dangerous in the long term. Most of our waste goes into the ocean, which not only intoxicates it but results in harm to the organisms inside which leads to extinction of species, destruction of habitats and downfall of ecosystems both inside the ocean and outside on the shore.
This issue is something I am deeply concerned about as an IB ESS student. In our studies, we learned the importance of maintaining a balance in all the ecosystems as each one of them contributes to the sustainability of food chains , weather patterns, livelihood of organisms, our lives and ultimately our planet. Contributing to bring change this issue made me feel like a responsible student and citizen, who really wishes to do something rather than simply spreading awareness regarding the negative impacts of littering on a beach. It felt really empowering to watch other people and get inspired by us, if not to clean the beach but at least be more mindful of their actions.I felt like I was a part of something greater than just some local issues, rather something more significant for the greater good of our planet.

LO7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

One of the biggest ethical issues that were involved in this activity was the global pandemic. Even though things were relatively in control and it was okay to go out with more than 2 people, it was still very risky for a lot of us visiting a beach which was packed with people and wherein proper social distancing rules weren’t followed. This issue affected us directly since our whole project was based on it. We felt helpless for some time because we almost gave up on going there as there were some restrictions made by our families regarding our safety and security. However, thankfully, we came up with a solution. We made COVID guidelines together and made sure to follow them at all costs so that we stay as safe as possible. A few agreements included; Wearing masks and gloves at all times, maintain social distancing with each other as well as the members of the public, carry a personal water bottle and hand sanitizer to avoid sharing and transmission of germs and also be as cautious as possible. 

Final takeaway: This cas project, for me, was very fulfilling and I am glad I was able to be a part of it. Even if we just participated in the beach clean up for just 3 sessions, it put things into perspective and made me ponder upon the daily actions that I do and also how can I be a part of more such activities not just for CAS. I developed the learner profiles caring Since I cared so deeply about the beach and the surrounding ecosystems, I was able to participate in this clean up. And I saw the care and love the organizer of this project showed towards the beach and its environment which made me develop the learner profile caring as well.The highlight of this experience, personally, was when people who were observing us also volunteered to help us clean the beach. They came and asked us about why we are doing this and what they can do to help. It was an eye-opening  conversation for them about something so crucial. This made me think that we should have these conversations a lot more frequently with a lot more peers and keep them going, only then will awareness spread and people will become more conscious of the actions they take and how it affects the environment. 

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