Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively – Entire Trip
Throughout the entire trip, we worked together, making sure we were looking after each other and helping each other. Even when we were divided into groups, we would also work together. For example, during the last day where our group almost got lost, we worked together and found our way back.
Learning Outcome 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience – School Planning
During the trip, we were supposed to teach a local Chinese school English and sports. Before the trip, we were divided into groups and choose a specific topic to teach the kids. Our group had a whole plan to teach about animals. However, as we arrived, we soon noticed that the kid’s English abilities were a lot better than we had expected, so our teaching material was repetitive. Since the kids English exceeded our expectations, we had to improvise our whole lesson.
Learning Outcome 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences – Panda Base
The Panda Base was a once in a lifetime experience – feeding, cleaning, and having the opportunity to be in such close proximity of a panda. The adventure started with us being briefed and getting a short introduction on what to do and what not to do. Straight away, we began to clean the enclosures, which all of us worked together to have the living area for the pandas as clean as possible.
Feeding was also a tough job as we had to break the bamboo and carry it in large quantities to each enclosure. These jobs were repeated throughout the day. Although some people gave up and were complaining, I was eager to get back to the post and complete the task at hand. I knew I would never experience this again, which is why I tried to learn and stuck to completing all tasks that made these pandas lives easier.
Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth (LO1) – Jogging
The second day of the trip some students and a supervisor decided to go for an early jog. It was planned the day before, and not many students showed up in the morning, I was one of the students trying to get up early. Since I’m usually not an early bird I tried to adjust during the CAS trip. I hope to improve my mental and physical health while on a jog, most importantly making sure I can continue this early jogging habit during the journey.
The next day everyone was too tired to for another run; However, the second last day of the trip a couple students decided to go for a night jog. We agreed because it was the second to last night and wanted to spend as much time together. No one felt like sleeping, so we went for a challenging run which was led by a DP – 2 student. I think I achieved my growth, being able to wake up early and having days where I would go for a jog to improve my well being.
