Gavier is a lake in Surat where lots of different bird and aquatic species thrive. The lake is covered with weeds which makes it difficult for the birds to catch their prey. Due to the unwanted weeds, the birds find it difficult to look beneath the surface of the water and the sunlight penetration also reduces which cause eutrophication leading to the death of aquatic species and the distortion to the food web. Having learned about this we came up with a solution which could help save the species. Few of us from our grade decided to go to the gavier lake for weed removal every weekend.

Learning outcome 4 – Demonstrating commitment and perseverance

The biggest challenge that we undertook was waking up early in the morning every weekend, as this activity was initiated for an environmental cause we pushed ourselves to get up early on weekends for about two months. We faced ample challenges during weed removal, we had to get the wooden boat inside the lake and then tie a rope with the boat so that we can come back to remove the weeds that we collected, balancing the boat was also a tough job because the moment the balance goes here and there we are in the water. After collecting the weeds our hands used to pain like anything, this was indeed a laborious job. This activity that we initiated taught us to coordinate and communicate well with people. We divided different tasks among us, one had to stay out of the water and stack the pile of weeds, people in the boat had to collect weeds and one had to row the boat. Even after failures we stayed committed towards this act of kindness.

Learning outcome 2 – undertaking challenges

The responsibilities were distributed according to the strength which helped us complete the activity effectively. We took ourselves out of our comfort zones because without that we would not have been able to do this. We motivated each other to put their hands in the water full of wild species. Some of them were not willing to put their hands in the water to collect the weeds but we motivated them to do that. This experience was quite thrilling as we had nothing except a boat for our support, we would have fallen out of the boat at any given point in time but, we managed to keep our minds ready for that inevitable instance, and through this activity, we also achieved to take challenges ourselves. I did this solely for the purpose of saving the species from the dying out. In 2 months time, we were able to clean 1/4 of the lake. This was not an easy task for us because everything had to be managed by us and through this activity.

Learning outcome 1 -Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

I am a very adventurous person and I am always looking forward to doing something which involves some scope of risk. I coordinate well with people and I can easily manage to handle things. I identified that strength of mine and took responsibilities that need cooperative skills and management skills.

I helped in taking the boat inside the water, making sure that weeds are removed at a proper interval of time and with that, I also helped people to gain the courage to dip their hands inside the water to remove weeds. I also developed upon my weakness through this activity. I get tired easily and cannot perform a tedious job for a longer period of time, but, this activity helped me develop areas of growth which is increasing strength and stamina. We literally worked for 2 hrs where we had to lift a bunch of weeds continuously and with that unfilling the boat after the boat is filled. This activity was overall fun and helpful to me because I could improve upon my weaknesses.

Learning outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Eutrophication is a problem that has become widespread due to lack of maintenance of water bodies and use of waterbodies in a careless manner. Due to weed layer on the surface of the water, the birds and aquatic animals face difficulty in finding their own food, due to this the habitat becomes deprived of species. due to this, the food chain gets disrupted and the species die of starvation. We identified this problem and took a step ahead to save the birds and the aquatic species from dying.

Learning outcome 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

We considered the consequence of the CAS activity that we did to save the birds and other species living in that habitat. When we visited gavier to clean the weeds we made ourselves aware that we were disturbing the birds and animals living in that area and in order to maintain the silence we made sure that we uttered only when we had something very important to tell others. But, sometimes people just started shouting for help instead of speaking softly, later we all realized that we are doing something good for the environment but at the same time we were disturbing them.

This experience will always stay with me because instead of procrastinating all day long I did something for the environment that has given us humans a purpose to live and without it, the existence of humans would not have been possible. Giving a thought on that as a responsible human I undertook this challenge to put my efforts to help those birds and aquatic species in danger. I extended my classroom learning by initiating and implementing this activity which made me realize that implementation of the learning counts in life.

Few glimpses