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Continuing the theme of sustainability in aquaculture and our marine / water environments, I will focus on these areas in my county of Meath.
County Meath has a very short coastline, of roughly 10 kilometres that includes the beaches of Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington. Across these beaches there are activities present to protect the sustainability of these areas.
For example, on a policy level – per the Meath Climate Action Plan 2024 – 2029, there are extra controls in place to monitor the water quality of the Bettystown area and also Pollution Reduction Programmes are in place to support shellfish life across the Meath coastline. Link to Meath Climate Action Plan: Annex 3 Strategic Environmental Assessment Environmental Report.pdf
On a community level, Bettystown Beach has recently been successful in being awarded a Blue Flag for the third year in a row, highlighting the active sustainable practices and the power of community in protecting the local coastline.
Channelling this back into the classroom and how it can inspire students could be detailing the “positive” result stories and benefits that were achieved from community and policy led sustainable practices. For example, could teach the children the benefits of coastal litter picking and how marine litter can affect marine animals if not collected. Could also integrate the rubbish collected from a coastal walk that it could be created into an art feature, by also giving examples such as the “Giant 12-Meter Sculpture of Whale Created from a Plastic Waste found in the Pacific Ocean” (Source: Giant 12-Meter Sculpture Of Whale Created From A Plastic Waste Found In The Pacific Ocean | FREEYORK)
Thanks Claire for this response. I really like your idea of first connecting with the student’s own world on this complex topic of sustainability, making it more understandable for them. By connecting with their own environment of the school by completing hands on activities such as a waste audit and posters that promote environmentally friendly habits.
A very enjoyable and insightful module highlighting the benefits and nutritious value of seafood. To support an increased consumption of seafood to match our European neighbours, information regarding the many vitamins, minerals and amino acids present in seafood should be made more publicly available in supermarkets to support the purchase of more seafood.
Firstly, when introducing the benefits of seafood in the classroom, it may be helpful to begin by exploring the nutritional value of land-based animal products, as these are generally more familiar to students. By drawing on their existing knowledge of foods such as beef, chicken and dairy, teachers can help students make meaningful connections between the nutritional benefits of terrestrial and marine food sources.
As mentioned in this module, could also utilise the story of “Salmon of Knowledge” to help compound that there are nutritious values in seafood in a light accessible way for students.
A very good activity mentioned, more suitable for the senior classes, is the identification, analysis and understanding of various labels on packages of seafood. Further activities could be comparing and contrasting “farmed” and “organic” seafood and understanding perhaps why the nutritional values may possibly differ. There are many cross curricular lessons that could be drawn from the analysis of food labels and nutritional values such as a study on the various countries of origin of the seafood, data handling and sorting in maths and fundamentally science by focusing on nutritional values by comparing and contrasting each package of seafood.
Thanks Noreen for your response here. I really like the idea of the practical ways of introducing this topic to your ASD class through visual supports, social stories and hands on activities.
The STEM Education Policy Statement worked as a guiding resource for the creation and introduction of the new STEM Specification. Primary schools across Ireland have the choice this September 2026 if they decide to introduce this new specification to their teachings, or the other four new curriculum areas. If focusing on the STEM Specification as their area of focus, the school may be awarded extra support on how to introduce it effectively to their school community. This could also be integrated into the school’s SSE plan. With the extra support of guidance on how to introduce this new specification, teachers may be able to draw from a variety of interesting topics from the student’s environment such as aquaculture farming.
Utilising the great ARC resources available would be a great way to apply the student’s new STEM skills such as “creatively solving problems” and “innovating designing and thinking” to aquaculture practices. The area of sustainable Irish seafood would allow for student’s to think creatively on how the current aquaculture practices could be protected for years to come. By using local examples, students could come up with various designs and innovations to help support and protect the seafood sector, mirrored on current farming practices who have been awarded to be part of the Origin Green programme.
Could also include open-ended, inquiry-based questions that encourage pupils to apply their STEM knowledge to authentic challenges within the aquaculture industry. For example, “If we wanted to increase the stocking density of salmon while remaining environmentally sustainable, what changes would we need to make?”
That is a great point regarding integration with the Digital Learning Plan, a practical way to integrate aquaculture and making it a purposeful use of technology – thanks Rachael.
As mentioned in this module, the majority of the aquaculture farms are along the Wild Atlantic Way due to the climatic conditions. There are also some farms dotted along the remaining Irish coast such as Carlingford Lough and Bantry Bay.
Aquaculture farming is a way of life for some local communities, an integral part of their identities. In these communities, aquaculture connects families through the folklore of their fishing tales to the hardships of a labour intensive industry. A community’s cultural heritage is very strong in these areas where they can pull on the many elements of aquaculture farming experiences throughout the generations.
For example, aquaculture farming in Galway Bay has impacted various communities socially and economically. Firstly, the Galway International Oyster Festival is held annually drawing international visitors and promoting the tourism economy in Ireland. This festival is now in its 72nd year and is noted as the world’s longest running oyster festival. It is held in September to celebrate the start of the native oyster season.
Noting the point of native oysters, unfortunately Galway Bay’s stocks of native oysters have depleted in recent years and are currently working since 2017 on restoring them. The agencies in working on actively restoring the native oyster beds and reefs are Cuan Beo, Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, and the Clarinbridge Co-Op. The working of various groups together to reach a collective goal, highlights the social impact aquaculture can have.
An area of aquaculture farming not discussed too deeply in this module was seaweed harvesting. The Irish seaweed industry has also had great success in recent years, and impacting the local socio – economic industries. For example, taking into account the Sligo company, “VOYA”, it first used seaweed as retail seaweed baths that brought tourism to Strandhill, to now being a successful international brand.
Great point Niamh, I am of the similar mindset of making the effort to buy locally sourced fish whenever possible – unfortunately, it can be difficult to source when unable to reach the fish mongers on time during the working week etc.
The “new” curriculum’s core concept is about connecting learning with the student’s own learning environment, making learning more real and relatable for the students. As an island nation, teaching about our surrounding ocean is essential in fostering a sense of place among students, while strengthening their understanding of their identity, as people living in Ireland.
From growing up in a coastal area, I have a great appreciation for the ocean and the many possibilities it offers. There are many resources detailed in this module of how to connect with our ocean to the classroom, especially the videos of blue mussels farm in Mulroy Bay, Burren Smokehouse and Clare Island Salmon Farm. The quiz on the BIM lessons & resources page is very good at checking in on the children’s learning.
However, in my opinion experiential learning and hands on learning is the best when comes to learning about the ocean – for example – from beach walks, sorting of shells and fossils and creating / making boating structures.
Social licence initiatives, the Aquaculture Remote Classroom is a brilliant initiative, I hope to be successful this coming year in bringing it to my school given the demand it has had this past year. Cuan Beo has also completed wonderful work on the area of restoration of the native oyster in Galway Bay, they have also completed some great work in local schools with local artists.
Continued publicity is key to highlight the great work of the many initiatives that are happening already that student’s can learn more about in their localities to help them connect more to it – such as the Dublin Bay Oyster Restoration Project (helping to filter contaminants from the marine water) to the Carlingford Oyster Revival.
Finally, educating about our marine environment is key for our next generations, as – you cannot protect something if you don’t know anything about it.