On the first day of our grade 11, our school took an initiative and took us to a beach near to our school to clean it. We were given a garbage and hand gloves for hygiene. Then they divided us into groups and sent us in different directions to clean the beach. As were more in number it became easier for us to clean the beach. It was not that big beach. But as we say, ocean is filled with drops. Small initiatives do matter. It felt amazing when we saw the beach getting its beauty back.
The learning outcomes we catered were:
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills
in the process
As we are students we don’t get such experiences every day. And our expectations from the first day are very high. When we were told we were going to a beach we were happy. When we reached there we saw the beach to be dirty which definitely an upsetting point. But when we were told that we were the ones who had to clean it we got more upset and maybe uncomfortable too. Once we wore gloves and got our garbage bags something lit inside us. Everyone slowly started working with energy and a smile. We did not feel disgusted at all. The weather was humid so the garbage around was also kind of wet btu we had gloves which did not create a huge problem. Challenges also include many pieces of glass which we had to handle care with, their were some soda glass bottles also and plastic waste like poly bags which flew with the wind and were difficult to carry and put in the bag. As we were divided into groups we could improve our communication and coordination about from which area we should clean and stuff.
LO 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Pollution is a major issue worldwide. It is our duty to do whatever we can to cater to this issue. Number of people throwing garbage around has boosted up. And people thinking of actually clean it has decreased. We are provided with dustbins all around but we do not use them. We have government policies and laws as restrictions but we don’t care. Any number of campaigns have not changed people’s mindset. Like our prime minister, Narendra Modi has started a ‘saaf safai abhiyan” in India. People do support but only a few act upon it. So if we initiate maybe other people would also get encouraged to act upon it. This would decrease the release of greenhouse gas and also decrease global warming.
LO 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions
Our choice of cleaning the beach was a good choice as our intention was to contribute as much as possible to our society. This helped us to do our task with complete enthusiasm. All of us did a great job. Not even a piece of garbage was seen. People witnessing it also helped us later as even they got encouraged by this. And till the time we were not the beach we did not litterit at all. Teachers were actually proud of us which encouraged us to continue doing this in future.
