Since the beginning of our school years, we have constantly been taught about the environment, sustainability, and its paramount importance in the world today. A clean and pollution-free environment has always been one of the top goals for any country in the world. Having visited the Dumas beach on numerous occasions, it’s easy to say that it isn’t the cleanest. One can easily spot plastic bottles and waste packets lying all around. Hence, to resolve this issue, and doing the bare minimum that one can do to contribute to society, my classmates and I decided to visit the beach on three consecutive weekends with the goal of collecting as much garbage as we could.
Learning outcomes achieved: LO4, LO5, LO6 and LO7
LO-4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Since we decided to do this for three consecutive weekends, it required commitment from each of the group members, all the more because we had to drive all the way to the beach, which was quite far for some of us. Waking up early, deciding meeting points, carpooling, setting up schedules and plans and adhering to them required commitment and teamwork.
LO-5. Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
We were a group of about 10 people who worked collaboratively towards this goal. Obviously, we couldn’t cover the entire coast, but we divided ourselves into groups and then took up specific stretches so that we could cover as much area as possible. Besides making the task more efficient, working in a group alongside friends made the experience fun and easy to commit to.
LO-6. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Ignorantly littering around the beach, or anywhere for that matter, affects the environment immensely. It harms nature and its balance like slow poison. The waste on the beach affects the ecosystem in numerous ways, maybe not right away but eventually. Besides polluting the shore, the waste on the coast also causes harm to the marine life leading to destruction of habitats. Being a part of such an issue made me feel like a responsible citizen.I could see myself as a significant part of a big change.
LO-7. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
An ethical issue that we had to keep in mind throughout the experience was the global pandemic. Although the situation was relatively in control, we still had to be cautious.
We decided to take precautions and follow a list of guidelines to keep safe at all times. The agreements included; to wear masks and gloves at all times, maintain social distancing with each other and everybody else on the beach, and carrying our own water bottles and hand sanitizers. We made it a point that everybody followed these guidelines at all costs.
All in all, this experience filled me with a sense of achievement. It helped me identify the significance of our small contribution. A learner profile attribute I developed was ‘caring’. It was notably interesting to see the other people at the beach observing us. They looked inspired by our initiative and would often come up to us to ask questions about what we were doing and what school we were studying at. I feel like this experience helped us spread awareness and made the people around us feel more conscious about their actions.
