T319 Environmental Management, Tutor-marked assignment 01, OU, UK

Learning outcomes

TMA 01 will assess you on the following learning outcomes: Knowledge and understanding

KU1. A range of systems theories, tools and methods.

Cognitive skills

C1. Use systemic theories and methods to review and investigate complex situations.

C2. Explain when and how to use systemic representations and where iteration is needed.

Key skills

K1. Learn and communicate effectively about complex situations.

K2. Use information and communication tools to gather, analyse and synthesise a variety of data and information.

Practical or professional skills

P1. Design a systemic enquiry.

P4. Use systemic theories and ideas to suggest ways in which issues, opportunities and problems might be acted on.

P5. Report on a situation, providing interpretations and recommendations emphasising the uses made of systems theories, ideas, tools and methods.

Question 1: Reflecting

(You are advised to use 800 words to answer

Question 1) In Activity 1.9, you drew a rich picture to summarise your reflections on systemic and systematic environmental management.

For Question 1, you need to provide your original rich picture from Activity 1.9 and a reworked version, drawing on insights gained through sharing your initial rich picture and engaging with other students’ rich pictures. With specific reference to your reworked rich picture, describe:

• your understanding of the role of environmental managers the values, skills and knowledge you had before engaging with Block 1, and
• the values, skills and knowledge you think you will need in order to progress as an environmental manager.
• the synergies and/or conflicts between your lifestyle and your aspirations as the environmental manager you would like to be.

Question 2: Connecting

(You are advised to use 800 words to answer Question 2)

A key aspect of a systemic approach to environmental management is an understanding that we draw ‘boundaries’ around what we include and exclude within our decision making. The values and experiences that you have reflected upon in Question 1 provide the foundations for how these boundaries are drawn. However, these boundaries come to the surface when you select and apply practical environmental auditing techniques for identifying a range of connections with a range of environmental issues.

For Question 2, you need to select one environmental auditing technique that you engaged with in Activity 2.5. You can select one of the techniques explicitly covered in the teaching material leading into Activity 2.5, or a different technique that you chose to include in your analysis.

Provide your original spray diagram, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen environmental auditing technique, as well as a reworked version (drawing on insights gained through sharing your diagram and engaging with other students’ diagrams).

With specific reference to your reworked spray diagram, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen environmental auditing technique. Briefly describe the values, knowledge and experiences that underpinned your choice.

Question 3: Modelling

(You are advised to use 800 words to answer Question 3)

In your answer to Question 1, you reflected on your values and experiences, while in your answer to Question 2 you evaluated how a range of environmental auditing techniques connect you to different aspects of the environment. Having explored your personal position and different ways of assessing a household’s environmental impact, you will now demonstrate how you have used modelling techniques for identifying a practical intervention.

For Question 3, you need to provide your original causal loop diagram from Activity 3.6, exploring the dynamic interrelationship amongst the components affecting your chosen household’s environmental impacts, as well as a reworked version (drawing on insights gained through sharing your diagram and engaging with other students’ diagrams).

Discuss the insights you have gained from your reworked causal loop diagram, with regards to identifying a practical intervention for improving your household’s environmental impact. Briefly describe the values and experiences that you believe underpinned your visual modelling.

Question 4: Doing and Reflecting

(You are advised to use 800 words to answer Question 4)

Having worked through the four phases of the action learning cycle in Block 1, Question 4 is your opportunity to briefly describe doing your proposed intervention, and to discuss the impact of this intervention within the context of how your values, skills, knowledge and experiences have evolved during your studies of Block 1.

Evaluate, using at least one diagramming technique, how the values, skills and concepts that you have engaged with in Block 1 may have affected the outcome of your household intervention.

Discuss whether these values, skills and concepts are central or peripheral to the work of a professional environmental manager. Justify your perspective with reference to particular values, skills, knowledge and experiences.

Answer

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