Beaches play a really essential role in our environment by providing protection against high winds and waves of powerful storms or rough seas. Similarly, beaches also play an integral role in our life by creating fond memories of beautiful shorelines and vast open seas. Thus, protecting beaches against any form of human damage is our rightful responsibility as global citizens. In my CAS experience, I have chosen to clean up my local beach in order to boost its cleanliness and make it look more appealing. The local beach I had chosen to clean up was a beach known as Dumas beach located in Surat city in Gujarat, India. Dumas beach is a polluted beach, especially by trash disposed of by locals and beach vendors. Since this beach is the only public beach in Surat and a lot of people in the city make their way to it to enjoy their evenings or morning, it is thereby essential to make the beach a place that is clean enough to enjoy.

LO1(Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth)

While undertaking this CAS experience I was to identify my points of strengths and weaknesses which led me to complete the CAS project effectively. The strengths were my dedication and perseverance towards this project which led me to take action against pollution on the premises of the beach. The weakness involved in my project was the punctuality which caused everyone to delay their action. In some cases, some people arrived late to the point of the meeting resulting in time being wasted and the project being delayed by some hours.

LO2 (Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process)

There were some challenges that acted as an obstacle toward achieving our goal. The first challenge included punctuality as mentioned earlier in the passage. Some people tend to arrive late at the meeting point from where we begin our project. Coming late resulted in the loss of time, the solution to this problem was taking strict actions against those who come late, such as the group who has arrived on time will proceed as scheduled while those who come late have to catch up. This step acted as deterrence against latecomers. Another challenge was fitness, there were some people in the group who found it difficult to cycle for long-distance. In order to overcome this challenge, we rode our bikes slowly or those people come on scooters so that they can complete their experience of beach cleaning. Challenges like these strengthen our project and we can learn from these challenges so as to make our future goals more smooth and more achievable.

LO3 (Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience)

We planned this CAS project by collectively volunteering to take up this particular topic as our project and finish it in a given time period. In order to gather sufficient individuals for our project, we asked people who were interested to take part in this activity and organized the names of the participants in a spreadsheet wherein we also noted their attendance and their contribution to this project. We also created a WhatsApp group wherein the key members of the project would update plans and changes of the project.

LO4 ( Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences)

 During this CAS experience, I demonstrated the attributes of commitment towards my experience by visiting the beach every weekend for a month. I visited the beach 4 times and cleaned it sufficiently, giving my best efforts. This experience was a group project, wherein we cycled our way to the beach and cleaned it with utmost dedication. Every weekend we cycled approx 20km in order to reach the beach, with our cleaning equipment such as gloves and cleaning bags, and cleaned it for 30 min. Each one of us was given a bag wherein we collected trash, we only finished when every one of us filled up the trash bag. All this made the experience quite difficult but in a way enjoyable. I felt really satisfied after cleaning the beach since our efforts went into saving the environment. 

LO5 (Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively)

In this group project, I demonstrated the skills of working collaboratively and engaging in communication with my peers for a better outcome of the project. Working with my peers is really enjoyable since we engage in an effective exchange of ideas which helps us enhance this experience as well as make it more productive. It is thereby easy for me to collaboratively work with others to fulfill the goal of this project. I faced no problem of miscommunication or conflict with any of my peers since their dedication towards this project was greater than the differences everyone had. Working in a group can increase the pace of work and also decrease the total efforts of work by completing the project in less time but more effectively. A joint effort is always better than single work.

LO6 (Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance)

 This CAS project provided me with the experience to deal with issues of global significance. I dealt with issues such as pollution relating to cleanliness. Dealing with global issues enhances my personal growth as it highlights my responsibility as a global citizen as well as it leads me to actively participate in an action that impacts our environment positively. Cleanliness is an issue of global significance as it impacts our environment really badly. Humans dispose a lot of trash into our environment and that trash contains really harmful chemicals that if kept for a long time or exposed in the ocean can harm the local habitats and release toxic chemicals into the oceans. Working on this project proved a really good experience in which our efforts paid off and we took a step closer to saving our local environment and inspiring people to contribute to nature.

LO7(Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions)

The ethicals issue involved was health and safety which we were catering to by cleaning the beach. Health and safety play a huge role in our environment, keeping our surroundings unclean can lead to diseases and degradation of the aquatic environment. This issue impacts me indirectly because it can lead to pollution which can be harmful for us as well as decrease in tourism which can impact my city’s income thus it is mandatory for me to take steps and address this ethical concern of health and safety.

My final takeaway from this CAS project is that I learned how an issue that we find insignificant can have damaging consequences to us and our environment. This local beach is our city’s one of the attractions and by keeping it clean we can increase not only tourism but a healthy and safe atmosphere for us. During this project, I developed several learner profiles such as caring and communicator which helped me create awareness about this issue and get involved with this project.

Evidence :–

Ride one :

Ride two :

Ride Three :