Greed or need? Maybe need, or perhaps could it be pure greed? Well I think it’s a mixture of both. What is this about? You may be wondering; well it’s about deforestation. Yes, the evil deeds humans did out of need but now it’s mostly greed! Deforestation is obviously a huge issue also majorly leading to Global Warming, weather uncertainties, sudden occurrences of natural calamities; it is the root cause of it all. Coming to the solutions for it, everyone is aware of its negative repercussions and also the solutions for it but how many actually take an initiative? Very few. Also it’s not possible to plant millions of trees/plants and drastically change the current climatic situation but a small step towards the greater good is always manageable. Thus, me and my friend decided to plant a few saplings in our locality, in a nearby garden where they could be taken care of even after we couldn’t anymore. We planted them in a day and watered them for a whole week in hopes of inspiring a good change. Through this activity we also contributed in small part to the Sustainable Development Goal number 15: Life on Land.
LO 2 – I was definitely not a professional at planting plants, but observational and theoretical learning helped me through the process. Whatever I had learnt all through the years watching my mother and gardener plant plants and take care of them, I used it to carry out my activity. In some places the soil wasn’t exactly moist or watered which made it difficult for us to plough the hardened surface, using common sense and observational learning we went ahead and moistened the soil for an easier ploughing. Along with my mother, I have done gardening a few times at our home which also helped me be prepared for this activity. We planted around 10-12 plants in a garden nearby which took us about 3-4 hours since we weren’t well experienced in this field. Moreover, we planted these during the peak daytime hours with the sun’s scorching rays, and we were exposed to it for 3-4 hours at length which made us very tired and dizzy after we got home; also sitting crouched down for those many hours is not very pleasant while we had to dig the soil, sow the saplings and water them. We took a spot nearby us so we could pay twice a day visits there for a week as planned during the pandemic, which made it all the more necessary for us to have the planting spot nearby so we wouldn’t risk our health to a greater extent.
LO 3 – We had planned this whole experience on our own; taking permission to plant them in a public garden, purchasing plant saplings, and planting them. We set a mutually working date for us to initiate it and a week’s relatively free time to look after the plants and water them. Planning wasn’t a difficult task, but the execution definitely was something new and challenging. At first, I was kind of nervous as to how we would be able to plant the saplings on our own without any experience or help, but eventually when we started off with ploughing the soil it all came naturally and I realised how just simply observing my mother and gardener has helped me today in effectively executing this task. Now, after having done it by ourselves I feel more confident about my gardening skills and I’m happy I got to learn a new skill through this experience.
LO 4 – The scorching sun on the day of plantation was really inclining us change to change our minds about going ahead with this activity, but we realised that after planning so much and putting in our best effort we shouldn’t walk away without completing it and as it is from then on when we would have to go water them we could simply choose a much pleasant time of the day. The fact that we had to plant 10-12 saplings for 3-4 hours at length really needed a lot of commitment and perseverance from our end to not just quit and leave. Another driving force which kept us going was the greater good we were trying to reach and inspire in others, we didn’t want to back out after reaching so close to the end of hopefully accomplishing our purpose of inspiring change. And after the completion of it we were glad we didn’t quit, and felt a sense of satisfaction take over us.
LO 5 – We were a team of 2, so we decided to divide the tasks of purchasing plant saplings, and getting ploughing tools between us; I had to bring the ploughing tools and my friend purchased the plant saplings as it was closer to her house. This surely made the process smoother and easier for the both of us, also planting along with another pair of hands helped and made the task more fun than we expected it to be. It is generally easy for me to work in a team of how-many-ever members as collaboration and communication is one of my biggest strengths. And for this activity, my teammate being my friend made it all the more easier and fun for the both of us. Collaboration is an incredibly imperative skill everyone should develop, because to live in this world we do and we have to co-depend on others and it is not humanly possible to provide ourselves with everything on our own without visiting any markets or taking any manner of help.
LO 6 – This experience is in alignment to the Sustainable Development Goal number 15: Life on Land, which aims to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forest, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. Deforestation being the main issue we intended to combat and inspire and promote a positive change. Deforestation doesn’t only have a local but rather a global significance as it leads to global warming and is part of the vicious cycle which keeps on enhancing global warming. I am very well versed with understanding on issues of environmental significance through personal research in MYP for Personal Project, and the subject of environmental systems and societies (ESS) in DP. This makes me feel responsible to educate those around me on crucial topics such as this, and helps me learn something new everytime I try to bring a change. I hope through this activity we were able to bring even just a small change in people’s attitude towards the environment or solely just the environment.
LO 7 – We had taken permission from the garden’s guard if we could plant there. Since the pandemic was going on, we had to find a place nearby to protect both our health as well as of others who’d come to the garden for a stroll or playing. We made sure to only remove our masks for photo and gardening purposes and put them back on while on our way to and from the garden. We were already aware of why we were doing this activity in the first place, and completing it made us happy, satisfied, and proud of ourselves. Our thoughts about the environment didn’t change but instead we felt much more confident and stronger in our abilities of tackling environmental issues at our level.
To wrap it up, I’m glad we went ahead with this activity as it was a new and enthralling experience for us. I developed and demonstrated the following Learner Profile attributes: Communicators, Caring and principled. Communicators, as I collaborated with my friend and talked about permissions to the guards. Caring, because we cared for our environment and took this initiative, and took care of the plants for a week. Principled, because we responsibly watered the plants twice a day.
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