Thoughts

HEAR MY GEOG REFLECTION:

The weathering mini-project has been a very insightful experience. On the day we were given the task, we chose to do the acid rain option, because we thought it would be easier as we already had background information on the topic.

Over the September holidays, I took a trip to the Philippines. Leaving on the Saturday after school closed and arriving on the Sunday before school re-opened, I was unable to meet up with my group mates to research on our weathering mini-project.

When I returned to school on Monday, I asked them how the project was going, and they told me they had done the research. Since back then, the mini-project was due on Wednesday, we felt pressed for time as we only had 2 more days to finish the project. However, the deadline was extended to the next Monday, and we felt more relieved and

With the research printed out, Anglia, WenHui and I met on Saturday to make a poster on acid rain and its effects on weathering. Calista had tuition as usual, and was not free on both Saturday and Sunday. We went over to Anglia’s house after purchasing a vangard sheet and eating lunch. We were only able to begin working after about an hour, after we settled down and stopped “clowning around”. We debated over who should be the one to write, then we decided WenHui should, since she had the best handwriting. Pooling all our resources together, we made a rough outline of our concept map. We had trouble deciding whether only the gases sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide contributed to acid rain, since our research seemed to lack some information. In resolution, we checked the internet and found out that only those two gases caused acid rain to form. After finishing the causes and effects, WenHui had to go, leaving Anglia and I to finish up the case studies and how acid rain promotes chemical weathering. After doing some more research, we decided to write a case study on Canada. We both knew that our handwriting was not exactly nice, so we constantly deliberated over who should write. We came to the decision that we should take turns writing every line, and guess what? Bad idea. The concept map soon looked distorted and messy, but we still continued doing. By dinnertime, we still hadn’t finished, and timed seemed to fly by. We had problems looking for ways in which acid rain sped up chemical weathering in rocks. We searched an endless number of websites, and found nothing. It seemed to us we had to rely on our own knowledge and linking skills. However, the problem now was that Anglia didn’t have her textbook with her at home. Since I had already studied that chapter a few days earlier, I started racking my brain for information on chemical weathering. I thought of carbonation or solution and remembered carbonic acid. I started to wonder whether carbonic acid was a component of acid rain. Stressed out and tired, we decided to call it a day, and I went home.

We met up again the next day to finish the project, this time at my house. We took a look at the concept map we took a drastic step: we decided to trash it, and start a new one. Since I had to go out for dinner at 6, we had inadequate amount of time. So this time, we learnt not to dilly-dally anymore and get straight to our task. I had a spare scrapbook lying around at my house, so we decided to use it. After planning the layout of the scrapbook, we looked for relevant pictures, maps and charts. We did a little more research and finally finished the project.

Therefore, in doing this I learned not to waste time and put off doing a project but instead, we should just work efficiently. Also I learned that planning skills is very crucial in order to get work done resourcefully.