Connection to Approaches to Learning
During these last weeks my partner and me carried out a project based on evolution and the extinction of species. We chose a partner and an animal or plant that is considered an endangered species or one that is already extinct to analyze the factors that lead to its extinction or for it to become an endangered specie. With my partner we decided to choose an animal that we didn’t know about to make this project more interesting and fun. We chose a type of flatfish called Atlantic halibut that is considered an endangered species. My partner and I like to work in group because we can support each other and combine our different styles of learning in order to have a better quality product. Because my partner and me are very different in our ways of learning we divided our work in order to suit our strengths and weaknesses. I consider myself a visual type of learner so creating a website where there are videos and images included helped me learn and understand the topic in an easier way. I also consider myself a kinesthetic type of learner because when actually creating something I understand the concept faster and better, this is why creating this website helped me understand the topic clearly and I also enjoyed the process of learning something new. My partner on the other hand likes to read and write in order to understand a topic better, the creation of the website was also helpful for her because while researching and reading the different types of resources she was able to analyze the information and formulate conclusions based on this information. My partner was also to write and identify the most important information when creating the website. Because a website is a way of showing others what you know and explaining a topic that you have researched on, the quality of the website proofs how much we know about the topic. Also being able to present this topic to our classmates shows how we know what we are talking about. By creating a website about the facts and information we have learned about the Atlantic halibut we are showing that we understood the information and were able to combine it in order to make a complete analysis of the topic. Throughout this project we had to research a lot on different topics and therefore we had to understand how to have an effective research. In order to have good quality information, we evaluated each source of information checking for typos, information about the authors, dates and most importantly confirming the information in more than just one resource (used a variety of resources). We think that we were able to organize our time and material in a good way because we used the time given in class wisely. Nevertheless we still think that we could have improved our use of time and materials because we lost some time due to problems with the webpage. Even though we faced this difficulty we were able to divide the work very well to recover the time we lost. We have worked well in group in the past and because of this good teamwork it is easier for us now to work in group and also be conscious of the beneficial part of working in group (helping each other). In the past projects we have not only learned how to organize ourselves but also we have learned how to take advantage of our strengths and embrace our weaknesses. Finally in this project we have not only learned about evolution and the extinction of species but we also got the chance to recognize our strengths and build on our weaknesses to be able to learn in a most efficient way.
Connection to environments
During this last weak we were given the assignment to research and learn in depth about an endangered specie around the world. We chose the Atlantic Halibut becuase we thought that with fish, seeming to be so distant and unrelevant to us, we could show just how much we are afecting the planet we live on. First of all, the Atlantic Hallibut is a very important part of our environemnt. We need to remember that there is a chain, it is like a cycle of nature that follows around itself. The main reason why the Atlantintic Hallibut is in danger of extincction today is because of humans excesive overfishing of this specific fish specie. During many years, on the Atlantic Coasts of the USA, the Atlantic Hallibuts have been fished in great and extense quantities that don´t measure the needs of the people. Many people find is as an entertainment becuase of the great size of the fish, but when commercial fishing started taking away the fish, there was en extnese decrease in the number of Atlantic Hallibut examplars that are still left. We, or the people who are fishing, are not being concient on what their action, fishing, does to our environment and just how much it affects it. The Atlantic Hallibut has a very slow proces of reproduction that takes place only in 10 years. If we don´t get informed about what we are doing, like the people who fish more than necesary, there can be really abd consecuences even for us. The fishing slows down the process, the natural process of the reproduction of Atlantic Halllibut that will bring them to an end. We need to star being concient and thinkning about how our actions are affecting out environment and the world we live in.