I think in this unit and through my paper, I was able to demonstrate the learner profile thinker because this unit was a bit more of an opinionated project. This meant that I was given more freedom to really think about what I personally thought was the best source of energy, and what I thought was going to be the energy source of the future. I wanted to make sure that I honestly believed in what I was writing about before I wrote the paper, so I made sure to really think about the advantages and disadvantages of each energy source before I wrote about them. For example, yes, renewables will greatly help the problem of global warming and help climate change (main problem we face/the reason we are looking at other energy sources in the first place) but renewables take up a lot of space while still not being as effective as other sources of energy. Nonrenewable forms of energy are also a big risk to put all our effort in because they produce waste, like how nuclear energy produces nuclear waste. However, they are able to be a lot more efficient and reliable compared to renewables. I think the main thing I took from this unit is the fact that we as a society have to really think about what’s going to be best for us to not only preserve our planet but still be able to further our development/growth. We have to think about and consider the benefits and consequences of using each type of energy source and should use a combination of all types of energy sources to maximize efficiency. The problem with the industrial revolution and the burning of all that coal/oil is that we only used one type of energy and did not invest in any other forms of energy, so now we’re running out. We need to realise that if we only use one type of energy, we’re going to run into the same problem again and again. It’s only a mixture of all types of energy sources that will be the best solution.
I’m most proud of the organization of my essay. I think I did a really good job with separating my points into sections; introduction, background, environmental considerations, etc. The organization of the essay and the way it was arranged helped the development of the readers’ understanding of the topic and how easy it was to understand and comprehend the essay. The way I wrote it made it so that they were able to have an overview of the topic, understand how it works, then have the 2 explanations of why I think this is the best energy source and a conclusion. I was also really proud of how I was able to keep track of all my sources. Usually, I lose track of some sources, or can’t find where I found the information, so I think keeping them all on one doc really helped me to trace the information back to where I got it from.
Like I mentioned in the first paragraph, I firmly believe that all forms of energy are related and that using any energy resource has both positive and negative consequences. Using too much of something is never a good idea of course. That’s what happened with coal and oil. We were focused on reaping the benefits of all the energy we got to the point where we disregarded the fact that using so much can have drastic consequences on our world. I feel like when humanity first started using coal/oil that the possibility of using too much was too absurd and unimaginable for them, but then as cities started growing and we started to rely on constant energy to complete daily tasks, energy became a neccessity and it was too late to stop. This is why we should put our time and resources into all types of energy sources.