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Hi Nicole,
I think it’s a great idea to allow the children to make connections to their own local area. It makes it very real for them. It would be interesting to see if there would be much difference in the class, my school has a mixture of children living in rural and urban areas so this could be an interesting comparison for them. I also like the idea of allowing children to come up with their own ideas for helping light pollution, I could see them getting very into this!
Hi Gràinne, this is a great lesson idea particularly for the senior end. I love the idea of allowing them to create a model of the solar system they would really enjoy this as it’s so active and creative. I think the active learning here is a great tool for helping children remember the different planets also. I could definitely see the children being fully engaged with their collaborative group work here also. I have taught 4th class previously and could totally see this working for them.
Hi Rachel,
I love this idea for infants. Story is such an effective tool for teaching. The five senses nature walk through the school is such a good idea and so active that the children will be so engaged. I like how the children are adding things to the season display, I could definitely see this working in the classroom and can imagine the children bringing in things to add to it each season. The opportunity for integration here is great especially when you think of the time constraints we have in the infant classroom!
Hi Dareca,
I love the idea of the gardening club, it can have so many benefits to children, not only not just through learning about gardening and being sustainable but I think getting children gardening with nature is great for their well being also! It’s certainly something they’ll always remember about their time in primary school. So active and hands on!
This was another interesting module. There are many ways sustainability is practiced in my local area. Whether it’s recycling centres, tidy towns, farmer markets, etc They really support protecting the environment. When I saw about the Atlantic puffin I immediately thought about the puffins on the Saltee islands in Wexford. I have taught classes about puffins before where children have completed projects and art work on puffins. One such initiative for tour groups when visiting the Saltee islands is to leave no trace of yourself there. I think this is a really important value to teach children when we think about sustainability as we in turn are teaching them about keeping the animal’s home safe for them. The Saltee islands are a special area of conservation and signs are there to remind us people not to get to close / disturb the puffins for the sake of photos. This too is also a good teaching point for children because sometimes our own interest can affect wildlife and their habitats. I think this could be further explored by looking into ways we can improves habitats for various animals in our own areas. This could even be something like designing and making an insect hotel in the school grounds or leading inquiry based learning where children could research what plants would attract certain mini beasts to the school garden. And then further on from this in looking at the school garden you could encourage children to grow their own vegetables at home as a means of being sustainable but also growing on what we learned about being healthy and nutrients in the nutrition module.
I think the Green Flag Initiatives in schools is another way we can teach about sustainability. Children are encourage to recycle and there are various recycling bins in most local areas. Even the return your bottle scheme is something children enjoy and they love to gather the cans/bottles giving them a great awareness of what’s going on around them.
In teaching sustainability I think it is always very important and effective to let children brainstorm themselves how they can become more sustainable. Sometimes this can be as simple as using a reusable drink bottle each day. Children have a great sense of looking after the environment and are often the most eager of us all to be environmentally friendly and explore ways they can be more sustainable. I think they understand that one small thing can make a huge difference.
I really like the idea of teaching children about how to spot labels on food items that are sustainable. I myself remember learning about fair trade in primary school so it truly can be something that sticks with children and teaches them the ways we can contribute to society. All of this inspires children to use their critical thinking skills and a great approach to exploring STEM in the classroom.An oyster farm class trip would definitely be a great opportunity and something the children would remember. Children would definitely find this interesting. It would be a great opportunity for your school and SSE. I do agree there seems to be more emphasis on agriculture in text books
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Hi Killian, I agree with you about the Wild Atlantic Way being a great tourist attraction and how exploring aquaculture here could also attract further tourism experiences. I think children would enjoy learning about this too. The use of food festivals to promote local Irish produce are great. It’s also nice for children to learn about different employment opportunities aquafarms provide as it might inspire some to go into these areas when they are older.</p>
I really like the idea of the I spy activity. I think it’s giving children the tools to
make the correct food choices for themselves both now but when they are grown up too. It gets them thinking more about their food and how it gets to their plates too!
I really enjoyed this module. I love learning about nutrition myself but also really enjoy teaching it in the classroom. Looking at the food pyramid is a great activity and it integrates SESE with SPHE very well. I think it is important to not only emphasise the importance of healthy eating but also the importance of developing a healthy relationship with food too and a nutrition based study is the perfect way to do this. Our School has the hot lunch programme so I think the children would find it very interesting to explore the nutrition in their meals but also how the protein source could be substituted for a sea food source of protein. I think they would find it interesting to learn that shell fish is a great source of iron and that salmon is a great source of Vitamin D. I guess learning about salmon in this area lends itself to exploring the “Salmon of Knowledge” too.
I think it could be cool to integrate an aspect of exploring the nutrition in fish by maybe getting the children to work in groups and explore the nutrition of different fish species. You could then do something like make sushi in the class and also do a country study on Japan and maybe even explore Japanese as a modern language in the classroom, I think this would encourage children to try different fish and it is something families could try to recreate at home themselves too. You could then further integrate it with procedural writing on how to make sushi. The children could also compare and contrast the different ingredients of sushi and compare the nutrients received from the rice/cucumber/tuna/salmon.I really like the eye spy idea and that children could explore different shellfish or seafood in supermarkets or at home and learn more about the nutritional benefits of the everything here.
Ultimately I do think nutrition is a topic to be handled with care in the classroom as each child comes from a different background and there can be financial implications for children eating certain diets/meals but I think it is so important to encourage building a healthy relationship with food and also giving children the opportunity and the skills to learn for themselves what foods they can eat and how seafood can be very beneficial for them in terms of the variety of nutrients they can receive from it. I think this in turn develops their critical thinking skills as it makes them think more about food too.
I think the use of the Aquaculture Remote Classroom could be an effective way to explore STEM in school. Having worked as a language support teacher last year I think ARC could be explored through STEM in schools but could also be a tool to help explore how we differentiate for EAL learners in School Self Evaluation. I think the hands – on approach and use of active learning is so effective here for EAL learners and is something that could be implemented in SSE. The real world learning experience is so beneficial for different styles of learning but also provides meaningful content that the language support teacher could pre-teach vocabulary for children with EAL needs thus allowing them to access the curriculum.
I thought the lessons on Sustainable Irish Seafood and What is Aquaculture were interesting. I think children would find exploring ecosystems very interesting and I could see it being used in the junior and senior ends of schools. I also think it’s very effective for environmental science. Last year my school achieved the marine environment Green Flag and my 4th class at the time studied the Great Pacific Garden Patch but I think exploring the eco systems and maybe creating projects on various eco systems or even designing their own eco system could be a really fun and engaging way of teaching STEM in the classroom. They could explore various eco systems and what makes them more effective and you could even let a child with EAL needs explore an eco system with the country they are from and we could then compare that with the ones in Ireland. All of this would present for various opportunities for children to engage in critical thinking which could also be an aim of incorporating STEM into children’s learning in SSE.I find nutrition is something very interesting for children to explore so I really like the idea of the lessons on the nutrition of seafood. I think you could encourage children to start looking at what they eat more and explore how we can be more sustainable. It is a sensitive area depending on different family backgrounds but giving children the tools to learn about different forms of nutrition is great. I think this resource supports the SSE in a school trying to utilise more STEM across the school. It allows for a wide range of teaching methodologies but also inquiry based learning which is so important for developing critical thinking skills and the holistic development of the child. Children often have a great sense of looking after the environment and the ways they can help and exploring these topics definitely promote that too.
I found this module great for providing insight into the location of aquacultural farms and the importance of various species for certain farms. I am from Wexford so I know this provides a lot of employment for people here, not only through fishermen/women but also in factories etc thereafter. However agriculture is also quite big in Wexford so it was interesting to see and learn about certain terrain not being suitable for agricultural farming and why certain areas are more suitable for aquacultural farming.
The salmon, muscle and oyster farms provide great employment opportunities in the West of Ireland but there also seems to be a wonderful tradition and culture celebrated in this too. It also is great for local restaurants/tourism as many food places in the west are renowned for serving wonderful fresh fish dishes. Observing the West as opposed to the south east coast you can see how the Atlantic Ocean can provide great opportunities for salmon farming.
I think the opportunities along the West coast for marine biologists are fantastic. It’s a job having taught 4th class for 3 years I have often heard a few children show interest in. The fact that there are opportunities to get qualifications through BIM and to also do diving training is great too. Not only can they study here but they can up skill their own training too and also it’s encouraging young people to stay in Ireland instead of emigrating. It is great to teach children that they can indeed become marine biologists in Ireland and stay in Ireland and the diversity of what can be explored on the various coastlines of Ireland too.
The aquaculture farms undoubtedly support local economies but the also help cultural heritage but aside from all of that it is such an interesting area to teach about in the classroom too. I think this would be really interesting in Wexford because in the classroom we could compare aquacultural farms in Wexford with those in the West of Ireland. I think it is so important for children to see careers they could have in the future in their local area. Even if marine biology isn’t their thing there are so many other opportunities this industry opens in the world of marketing, business, etc.
I am delighted to have chosen this course to study, personally I have more knowledge of farming than fishing and tend to explore agriculture more than aquaculture in the classroom so I am hoping this will give me some insight into it.
I think aquaculture will be very interesting to explore through STEM in primary schools.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>The first module really shows what a diverse and broad area of study it is and how it can be explored in the classroom. I think the Aquaculture Remote Classroom is an interesting concept and I think it would be a great tool for children to explore in the classroom. I think it would be very exciting and allow for meaningful learning to take place where children are fully engaged. The videos on the BIM website were also good, I would probably use them as a stimulus for a lesson or as a way to help illicit previous related knowledge. I was teaching in language support this year and I actually think the tools and videos would be particularly useful to EAL learners too and as a way of pre teaching what is being done in class. Taste the Atlantic was also interesting as children could learn about how we get food in Ireland. I think this is actually a topic children find very interesting, having previously taught topics like the Great Pacific Garden Patch I know children get very big into recycling and the importance of looking after the environment too.
I suppose the biggest take home I would have from this module is how it caters for STEM in the primary school classroom and how it can be explored across a wide range of curricular areas too.</p>
