In this CAS experience, me and my friend went to Tapi river to pick up the trash lying on the riverfront to promote cleanliness. We chose the Tapi riverfront because we have observed the river and the riverfront as there are bridges on the river and so every time I come from school or go to school, I am able to see the river and the trash on its the riverfront. We were also able to see the birds sitting around the trash and trying to eat which could lead to problems and so me and my friend planned to go together to pick up the trash from Tapi RIverfront.
LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
The one strength I got to know that I have was while doing this experience was that I can do good planning. So as we know that when we did this experience when covid pandemic was in progress and so the planning needed to happen as all the resources we will be needing in the process, the date and time when we can find fewer people and how we will and go and where we will go. So I got to know that I was kind of good at this thing as I did all the research about it in a very short amount of time. The areas of growth that I found in this experience was that I got to know that my collaboration skills are not good as I am kind of weak in doing collaboration and as we know that collaboration is a very important skill in future and so I took it as a critical advice and started working on it.
LO2 : Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
The thing I found challenging was picking up trash as I got to know that for the first 10 mins, it’s just bending and picking up the trash and after 2 seconds again bending and picking up the trash. But after 10 mins, I realized that it is not only bending and picking up trash but a physical exercise. It took a lot of time for me and my friend to complete picking up trash. We got very tired by picking up the trash. This experience helped me in knowing the hard work and process required to do this work.
LO3 : Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
In this experience, a lot of planning was required cause we had to go out of the house in pandemic and gathering resources for the experience. And so, me and my friend started to plan the whole thing, the first thing we thought of was date and time, we came up with Saturday as we had a holiday from online school classes and then we took 6:30 am as our time as, at that time, there will be fewer people. Then we listed down the resources we will be needing like garbage bags, gloves, mask, camera, etc. And at last transportation, we decided, that I will take my vehicle and then pick up my friend and will go together to the destination. Planning all these things beforehand made our activity easy which helped us focus on cleaning the riverfront easier.
LO4 : Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
The part where we had to do the cleaning means picking up the trash from the riverfront was a very challenging part because as I mentioned earlier, it was very hard to bend again and again every 2 seconds for more than 30 mins as it started to pain but we didn’t stop and were committed to the task. While we were cleaning the riverfront, we saw a person sitting in a small wooden boat and he was taking out the trash such as plastic from the river and I don’t know why but I got motivated because of seeing the man which was also one of the reason, I was able to be committed to my task.
LO5 : Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Working Collaboratively was definitely helpful. Working in pairs made everything much easier to do. It was very helpful while planning the whole thing cause we had two minds thinking and there were two opinions which helped very much in planning and execution of the plan had become a lot easier than working alone as because we were two we were able to cover more area in less time which helped us in completing our task in less time. And also, because of two of us picking up the trash, the environment became kind of competitive which motivated us to do more work. And because of a person with you, it was more fun to do the activity. I think it was very much fun and structured compared to doing the task by myself.
LO6 : Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
As we all know that trash in or near water is helping in polluting water which is dangerous for all the living beings and when we were picking up the trash, we saw a group of birds trying to eat trash, which in turn can harm them. And picking up the trash can prevent all this problems. I also know that not everyday someone will come and pick up the trash and also cleaning on such low scale might have no direct effect on the environment but it is a small step towards sustainability and cleanliness.
LO7 : Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
As we were going out at the time of covid pandemic, there were some things we had to think about before finalizing the idea of doing the cleaning of the riverfront. We thought of things like should we risk our health and do community service. We were having mixed opinions but then we came up with a creative idea which was going very early, around 6:30 am which was very early for many people to show up. And we also followed strict rules such as wearing masks all the time and sanitize our hands frequently.
Overall it was a very good experience and I enjoyed a lot cleaning the riverfront with my friend. The learner profile I have demonstrated here is Caring as I made a good difference in the life of living beings by cleaning the riverfront.
Evidence :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oBRTqkQEG666HnXx6UjgmirV6NWuFVS6zzh2w64aTd4/edit?usp=sharing