Ultimate Survival Unit Reflection

Reflect on what has helped you in understanding the "big idea" of the unit. 
(Big Idea:  Students will understand the use and management of natural resources, the transformation of resources into human capital, goods, tools and machines as well as sustainable development of human society to maintain the delicate balance between man and the natural environment.)


What helped understand the most were the different exercises and especially projects that we did. Every little thing that we did in class during this unit was like a small piece of a large jigsaw puzzle. When we did projects, we each focused on a small area but as we listened to other presentations our imaginary puzzle got "solved" a bit more. This unit felt a lot like two separate units but then when I reflected back on it and thought more deeply about it, I finally saw the strong connections between the two parts. The movies filled up "holes" in the imaginary puzzle very well too. Seeing what the theory actually looks like in real life was very useful.



Reflect on the unit question (What is a necessity and how does an organism ensure survival of its species within its environment?) and how it relates to the unit title:  Ultimate Survival. 


Well, all creatures need energy to survive.  This energy begins with the sun which sends rays at Earth. Then plants also known as producers use photosynthesis to convert the solar energy into nutrients. This is where the first part of competition begins as the plants have to fight for getting the most sunlight. Then many plants are successful but the next level in the energy pyramid happens. Animals come to eat the plants to earn the energy that the plants have earned from the sun previously. It is a necessity for them to intake the energy and therefore they are willing to compete for the energy contained inside the plants. Some plants protect themselves from those animals such as being poisonous, having sharp ends of leaves, and many more. Once the primary consumers have taken in the energy, there will be secondary consumers which will want to eat them.  Now the primary consumers will have to adapt to survive and not get eaten by the predators. Some adaptations that they can use are mimicry, camouflage,  etc. Then when the secondary consumers eat the primary consumers, they can use the same adaptations to avoid getting eaten by tertiary consumers. People would use things that they found in nature to protect themselves from predators. But later they found out that if they took more than needed then their lives would become more comfortable and that they could become stronger, being the ultimate consumers. Nature can't support those actions well enough and that is why we leave such  a large footprint unlike other creatures on this planet.



How did the unit question allow us to view survival through The Area of Interaction: Environments:(FOR EXAMPLE:  The effects of one environment on another, the roles our environments play in the lives and well-being of humankind, and the effects of our actions, attitudes and constructs, such as sustainable development and conservation.) 


Well, all of those things such as the way creatures and the environment effect each other is an example of adaption. Animals and the environment interact together and change each other slightly. But back to the human effect, we humans change the environment more than we should. We take what we want and what make us happier, blind of how bad the side effects of our actions are. We tend to be happy as long as we have what we want and not care of what matters which is what we are doing to our planet. It is the only planet that we can live on but we keep destroying it.


What would you have liked to do more of?  Less of?  


I think that this unit was balance out very well. We did a bit of normal work and then changed to doing a bit of creative work. Maybe we could have less written reflections and more verbal reflections. When we have to write a reflection it tends to be lower quality as we don't have anyone to discuss it with and we tend to rush it just to get it out of the way already. When we do it verbally, we share ideas more, rush it less and get a better understanding as we contribute together to "solve the puzzle".



In your point of view, how well did we investigate the unit question, concept, and area of interaction?  Include this in your reflection as well and give specific examples to support your opinions


I think that we managed to investigate the topic very well. We looked at it from many different angles of the topic (adaptations, the human footprint, etc.). We investigated what the problems were and what solutions there were (for example the packaging project). Overall it was a very long unit but that allowed us to do it properly and achieve full understanding of all the concepts.