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The ARC online resources showed how aquaculture can provide an engaging and practical context for teaching STEM in the primary classroom. I found the activities interesting because they linked scientific concepts to everyday life, making learning more relevant for pupils. I have 4th class this year and I can definitely see how exploring topics such as the habitats and life cycles of marine species offers valuable opportunities for investigation, questioning and hands on learning.
I also liked how the lessons extended beyond science by incorporating healthy eating, environmental awareness and Irish folklore. These cross-curricular links would help to make STEM learning more meaningful and accessible for children with a range of interests and abilities. There is so much potential for rich and meaningful integration across a variety of curricular areas such as drama, art, oral language, SPHE as well as STEM. Learning about the variety of careers connected with aquaculture also helps pupils recognise how STEM skills are used in the wider world.
These resources reflect the aims of the STEM Education Policy Statement by encouraging creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and inquiry-based learning. From a whole-school perspective, the ARC resources could be used as part of the School Self-Evaluation process by supporting teachers to plan integrated STEM experiences, monitor pupil engagement and achievement and work together to strengthen STEM teaching and learning across the school. The quizzes included in the lessons are also a useful way to check understanding and inform future teaching.I agree that the ARC resources are a great way to provide opportunities for the children to engage in real-life problem solving scenarios. I like how the ARC resources allow children to explore each stage involved in the farming, harvesting, processing and selling of seafood and the jobs involved at each stage. It’s a great idea to link these concepts with STEM.
Learning about the location of aquaculture farms in Ireland has helped me understand why they are often found along the coast particularly in the west, southwest and northwest of Ireland. These areas provide the right conditions to support the farming of salmon, oysters, mussels, and other shellfish. I also learned about the importance of aquaculture for many coastal communities.
Aquaculture creates great employment for local people and supports many other businesses such as transport, tourism, and processing facilities. It provides jobs and income for local families and it helps small coastal communities to grow and thrive. Although aquaculture farms provide huge socio-economic benefits to coastal communities, it is important that aqua culture farms are managed sustainably to protect the environment and to ensure that these industries can continue for future generations.
This topic has shown me that aquaculture is about more than producing food. It also supports local economies and encourages people to work together to care for coastal areas. Learning about this has helped me better understand the connection between the environment, local communities, and sustainable food production.Learning about aquaculture and the concept of social license provides valuable opportunities for children to engage in meaningful and enriching inquiry-based learning. These concepts can help children to explore where their food comes from and provides lots of opportunities for children to engage in critical thinking towards sustainability and environmental awareness. By examining real-world examples, children can develop a better understanding of how aquaculture supports food production and how communities, businesses, and governments work together to make sure it is done responsibly.
Teaching about social license also helps children to understand why public trust and community involvement are important for industries. Through discussions, investigations, and group activities, children can think about different points of view and learn how to make informed decisions. These topics link well with SESE and encourage students to think about real-world issues. Overall, learning about aquaculture and social license can help students become more informed, responsible and environmentally aware citizens.
Before taking part in this module, I didn’t have very much awareness of aquaculture or social license. I now understand its importance and how it can be integrated into the classroom. Learning about aquaculture fosters environmental awareness in children and helps them to become active citizens in their own localities. Children often having a natural interest and draw to the sea yet may not have an in-depth knowledge of the many industries related to the sea. Through inquiry based learning and problem solving there are many opportunities for children to develop their awareness of the different types of fish, shellfish and marine plants in their local area.
I love the idea of creating a digital book of the children’s findings. It is so important to preserve all our local traditions and it’s a lovely way for children to connect with older generations.
2. Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky? For example: Look up President Michael D Higgins’ “Stardust”
Making cross curricular links with subjects such as art, music and literacy is a really important aspect to include when exploring space with children. I think by introducing children to a range of songs, poems and artwork about stars, planets and outer space it further reinforces the curiosity, magic and awe outer space can evoke.
I think the Coldplay song ‘Sky full of stars’ would be suitable for primary school children. The song is uplifting and captures the natural feeling of awe that children often feel about the night sky. This song would link well with exploring the art work of Vincent Van Gogh ‘starry night’ in art lessons.
Similarly I think the song ‘Somewhere out there’ from the film An American Tail beautifully captures the feeling that children find both comforting and fascinating that no matter where you are, you can look up and see the same stars.
Aboriginal art work often depicts stars and space which would be a great stimulus for introducing the theme of the night sky with children.I really like the idea of building bug hotels, bat and bird boxes. This would give the children autonomy and help them to realise that their actions really can make a difference in protecting local wildlife from light pollution.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
Firstly I would begin by taking the children on a nature walk where they could record using a checklist any examples of wildlife observed. We would then discuss which animals and insects come out at night. The children would be invited to reflect on the impact light pollution may have on wildlife in the local area. The children would be invited to reflect on real-life examples familiar to them such as moths being drawn to light, birds being confused by artificial lights at night etc. For younger children the picture book ‘Lights Out’ by Marsha Diane Arnold is a great way to explain what light pollution is and the way it impacts nocturnal animals. I think this would be a great stimulus to use to spark children’s curiosity to investigate ways they can limit light pollution in their own homes. The children could carry out an investigation around the school grounds to identify sources of light. This could be further explored by collaborating with the school’s green school committee or student council to identify possible ways to limit the school’s light pollution such as using motion sensors and downward facing lights.Making their own planetariums is such a creative and engaging activity that the children would love. I think creating the mini street scene would be a really great active lesson to reinforce to the children the impact of light pollution in urban areas.
1. Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I would begin the discussion with the children by inviting them to discuss with their partners what is light pollution and I would add their contributions to a whole class mindmap.
I would show the children two contrasting images, one of a clear starry sky and one setting of light-polluted city with very few visible stars. I would invite the children to reflect on the impact this may have on people, wildlife etc. We would discuss how light pollution has a big impact on people’s circadian rhythm, local wildlife and our ability to view the night sky.
I think a great way to engage the children in this topic would be to organise a home observation project to investigate the levels of light pollution in their own area. Over the course of the week the children (supervised by an adult) could take a picture of the area they are observing and could answer questions such as ‘Estimate how many stars are visible?’, ‘What kind of lights can you see around you?’, ‘How bright does the sky appear?’ ‘Did you observe any wildlife in the area?’ The children could record their observations in their journals over the course of a week and compare their results with their classmates.The Autumn Sky Passport would be such a fun way to engage the children. The Stargazing Challenge is a really lovely way to involve the children’s parents and would provide opportunities for interesting conversations about space at home.
1. Create an observing plan for autumn that shows which planets are visible in the evening sky.
As the evenings get darker autumn would be a great time of year to introduce the children to identifying the planets in the sky. Prior to the children observing the planets it would be beneficial to discuss the optimal conditions with them. A night which is clear with little clouds would be the ideal conditions in an area with as little light pollution as possible. The children should be encouraged to pay attention to the time, date, direction and location of the planet and to document it in their observation journals. Stellarium would be a great app to further help the children when identifying planets. Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are planets which may be visible with the naked eye and it would be great if the children could take turns borrowing a telescope or binoculars to explore the finer details of the planets.
This learning could be explored further by integrating it across other curricular areas such as art where the children could create models of the planets that they observed using papier mache.The sky diary is a great idea. I like the idea of including photos or drawings of the different positions of the sun also which would make the lesson very interactive.
3. Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”
One activity I think would be effective in providing a hands on way for children to explore the different positions of the sun would be through tracing shadows.
I would begin by bringing the children to the yard and inviting them to safely observe the position of the sun. An item such as a chair would be placed in the yard and the children could trace the shadow and mark the time within the outline.
Later in the day perhaps midday the children would trace the shadow with a different colour chalk and again note the time. The children would be prompted to reflect on any way in which the shadow has changed e,g is the shadow longer/ shorter etc, Why do you think this is?
Before going home the children could repeat the tracing activity once more and observe any changes. The children could be invited to reflect on how their outlines of the shadows has changed throughout the day due to the different positions of the sun.