[Ellen Greene]

Sustainability is continuing to improve in my area. There are upgrades on new cycle lanes, increased public transport frequency, leaving grass grow for the pollinators and community initiatives to raise awareness of sustainabilty such as to shop local. We have new wind farms in our local area. People in the community have recently started businesses of beekeeping & selling honey and keeping huge amounts of hens & selling eggs. My uncle started an organic leaves and vegetables farm several years ago and that has taken off, getting lots of business from local restaurants.
Pupils in my school are already conscious of sustainability. We have the green schools flag for biodiversity and waste. We continue to strive to implement positive strategies to raise awareness of being kind to our planet.
We planted native trees, complete one hour of ‘no power hour’ each week and each room has a recycling bin.
We partake in many whole school initiatives such as cycle to school week, walk to school week, biodiversity week, to name a few. We have litter pickers.
As a staff we can continue to be conscious to promote good awareness in our classrooms on sustainability.

[Ellen Greene]

Hi Rachel, I too am from Galway. We are so lucky to live in a place that values sustainability. An increase in the Cycle lanes infrastructure or some other means of transport could definitely lessen the huge reliance we have on cars. Really looking forward to the greenway being ready!

[Ellen Greene]

I loved this module, learning about how nutritious seafood is and doing a recap on the food pyramid. Seafood is a terrific source of protein and omega3. It contains vitaminD , iron, selenium and iodine. Seafood is also low in saturated fats. I liked the animation of the legend the Salmon of Knowledge; Fionn reminding us that fish is good for your brain. Seafood also helps keep your heart healthy.

We have such a large coastline that seafood is accessible and is generally readily available. We are lucky that it can be sourced so locally and freshly.

From junior classes we should be promoting the importance of a healthy balanced diet and seafood is part of that.

Teaching about seafood and it’s nutritional values incorporates science, geography, history, literacy, oral language, maths, SPHE.

Visuals, videos and food pyramids can assist us in passing on the knowledge of local Irish seafood evoking pride in our produce and rural communities in our country.

[Ellen Greene]

You are so right. It really isn’t a stand alone topic, it could be integrated into many subjects.

[Ellen Greene]

The ARC resources would all be useful in the primary classroom. Having taught 6th class for the past several years I think videos are always a good introduction, miidle or ending to a lesson. I think students would like the ARC video showing the different jobs people in aquaculture can have. I think the resources encourage pupils to think about sustainability, biodiversity, infrastructure across Ireland and people living in different places. Projects or study could be aligned for a schools green school committee to research and undertake.
Children could use investigative, scientific, collaborative, problem solving and research skills in exploring the resources and potentially working on projects about mussel/ salmon/ oyster farming.
If we were looking at STEM for our School Self-Evaluation, we could look at development through a whole-school approach by identifying current strengths, areas for improvement, and opportunities for collaboration among teachers. We could gather evidence such as pupil work, parents ideas, digital records, STEM projects, and student feedback. We would need to evaluate progress. Sharing resources and planning together as a staff would support and ensure STEM becomes an integral part of teaching and learning across the school.

[Ellen Greene]

Hi Molly, I agree that this module has opened my eyes to how aquaculture can be a real-life context for teaching STEM. I think also that the resources encourage pupils to investigate local industries, sustainability, biodiversity and careers while developing problem-solving, collaboration and critical thinking skills.

[Ellen Greene]

Being from rural west of Ireland I learned a lot in this module relevant to where I live. Topics of community, local enterprises and infrastructure sprung to mind. The location of aquaculture farms in Ireland along the Atlantic way, mainly the north-west, south-west and west coast contribute to the livelihood of so many individuals and communities.
Having moved to Dublin myself along with so many others to go to college it is very apparent how important aquaculture is to small rural western communities as a means of income and sustainability.
How aquacutlure can contribute socio-economically to coastal communities is huge! If looking towards the future it means that local people can stay in rural west Ireland wouldnt it be lovely! I liked the videos of the chefs experiencing food along the wild Atlantic way. There is probably such a vast amount of people in Ireland who have no idea the aquaculture on our doorstep and how lucky we are to have good quality and local seafood available.
I liked the geography behind our ‘goldilocks’ climate. This would be very interesting for senior class students to learn about.

[Ellen Greene]

Hi Jessica, I too found this module relevant living near the coastline. I learned tides and water depths affects how oysters and mussels grow.

Geography, climate and coastline were interesting how they interlinked.

[Ellen Greene]

I thoroughly enjoyed module one learning about aquaculture. I liked the videos of oyster, salmon and mussel farming. I had never heard of ARC previously and I think it would be something very beneficial for any school community to engage with. Looking locally I did some research and found that we have the world’s oldest hatchery on the Owenriff river in Oughterard, Co. Galway. I remember getting a tour as a young child and it’s funny how memorable that was for me. You do gather some pride in where you are from when you experience local amenities and local people passionate about what they do. It is special to see food science/ science/ geography in action. I got some nice ideas for research projects for students. It is important to encourage children to explore local food sources and real-world environmental issues. We all live with such close proximity to the sea I believe we should all be looking at farming at sea a lot closer than we do already. I have found that children generally love learning about marine life and this module offered lots of resources to explore with students to spark their curiosity and engagement.

[Ellen Greene]

I thoroughly enjoyed module one learning about aquaculture. I liked the videos of oyster, salmon and mussel farming. I had never heard of ARC previously and I think it would be something very beneficial for any school community to engage with. Looking locally I did some research and found that we have the world’s oldest hatchery on the Owenriff river in Oughterard, Co. Galway. I remember getting a tour as a young child and it’s funny how memorable that was for me. You do gather some pride in where you are from when you experience local amenities and local people passionate about what they do. It is special to see food science/ science/ geography in action. I got some nice ideas for research projects for students. It is important to encourage children to explore local food sources and real-world environmental issues.

[Ellen Greene]

I love the idea of bringing in local people who work in the aquaculture industry . We often don’t utilise what’s right on our doorstep. I think us teachers as well as our students could benefit from exploring local fish farms or sea/ fresh water aquaculture.

[Ellen Greene]

Hi Olive, lovely idea to link old stories, etc. With grandparents day.

[Ellen Greene]

For teaching junior infants “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” is a lovely song to encourage wonder about stars. For older classes  “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay could be appropriate for background music when working on written or oral work in relation to the night sky.  “Clair de Lune” – Claude Debussy  is a nice instrumental song. “Space Oddity” is another famous one by David Bowie.

Poems:

“The Star” by Jane Taylor
The original version of “Twinkle, Twinkle” — a lovely way to connect poetry and astronomy.
“Silver” by Walter de la Mare
A beautiful poem about moonlight’s effect on the world at night.
“Stars” by Sara Teasdale
Expresses the quiet awe of stargazing.
Haiku Example
Night sky above me
Stars twinkle without a sound
Darkness feels like home

Artworks & Visual Inspiration

Vincent van Gogh – The Starry Night
A swirling, expressive depiction of the night sky—great for art and science crossovers.
Georgia O’Keeffe – Starlight Night
A more abstract view of stars, useful for discussion about personal interpretation.
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)
Stunning daily images of real night skies, planets, and galaxies—great digital art resource.
Indigenous Star Maps (e.g., Aboriginal Australian, Māori Matariki art)
Introduces cultural astronomy and sky stories from around the world.

[Ellen Greene]

That sounds like a great plan for covering the topic of light pollution and dark skies. I think many people don’t realise the effect lighting has on local people and local habitats for animals and other species.

[Ellen Greene]

Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.

Light pollution is impacting my local area in a huge number of ways. From looking at the map of what light pollution there was in 1997 compared to now it is easy to see the change over time in the increase of lighting. Aside from the cost of using all of this light energy, there are also plenty of other effects on humans, species and our earth.

Some topics which could be explored with 5th/6th class are:

Sleep & mental health

Nocturnal animals and confusion of time of day or night.

I would encourage students to engage with this topic by first sparking their interest by a fun or factual video. I would get them to construct debates as part of their written work on why people should use less lighting or change how they use lighting. Students could design poems on encouraging people to think about their use of light at home and at school.

We used to nominate students from the Green Schools Committee to be light switch managers. Just before lunch they would walk by all classrooms to ensure all switches and screens were off. We found this to be a good way of promoting awareness particularly when there was a prize for the most energy efficient class.

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