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Hi Niamh I have those jobs in my classroom too. Its so important to put these good habits into practice, turning off lights and putting the correct items in the correct bins. Children are always really interested in doing their it for the environment and it is great to put the emphasis on their positive actions rather than worrying them too much about the environment as anxiety is such a big issue for children today
Sustainability is practiced in the school with wildflowers in the school garden, collecting water in a butt from gutters, there are solar panels on the roof, boxes for swifts in the eaves of the roof and a bug hotel. The children could be asked to walk around the school and look out for these features, discovering themselves or told about them and then walking again to see them all.
The children could be encouraged to preserve water by not leaving the taps running too long. Being asked to turn off the tap while brushing their teeth, turning off lights in the classroom when we are all gone out and to do the same at home in rooms that are not being used. Children could also be encouraged to finish fruit before it goes brown by eing given extra time to eat it after lunch. They can also be taught to ask their parents to buy frozen veg and fruit to avoid wasting fresh produce.
It is always necessary to balance giving the children a sense of agency rather than of worry and anxiety when sustainability is being discussed. It is best to emphasise what they can do as individuals and to give them a sense of ease and achievement when they put little steps of sustainability into practice rather than building anxiety levels.
Looking at labels on food to encourage buying locally produced food and food that is sourced responsibly with special emphasis on avoiding bycatch of other marine species.
Keeping plastic out of the environment is another important concern and the use of balloons should be discouraged. Tress and shrubs with decorative soar lights are a much nicer decoration than balloons and the children would have lots of ideas for environmentally friendly alternatives to balloons and other plastic items. Careful recycling is encouraged in the classroom also with clean dry articles only being placed in the Recycling bin
I agree Katie that knowledge of seafood nutrition and sustainability labels have great impact on a personal and environmental level. Nutrient rich seafood can help the children to grow healthy and help their brains develop well. Care for the environment is a huge concern for young people so raising awareness of buying foods that have been produced in a sustainable manner gives them another opportunity to their bit in contributing to care of the environment and of land and sea animals
The BIM Seafood Nutrition Handbook is a great resource for the classroom and children could look up their favourite seafood to see what nutritional value it has. Seeing a Monkfish for the first time made me think it would be a good inspiration for an Art activity of designing your own fish, as the monkfish has a good hairdo ! SESE and SPHE are covered by this topic as the sustainability labels are very important. I always look for the Responsibly Sourced sticker on Tuna. The importance of looking for Fresh, Locally sourced rather than flown-in and Sustainable seafood could be taught to the children as this is a very urgent issue in the context of climate change.
It would be good to let the children sample crabmeat and salmon in small sandwiches. We could devise our own menu and have afternoon tea with some soft drinks to accompany the sandwiches. This might help to encourage the children to eat more seafood and for us as a nation to reach the target of eating seafood twice a week.
The nutrients in seafood are very impressive. The fish oils in salmon, the iron in shellfish and the Vitamin D in salmon, halibut and mackerel. As well as highlighting that seafood is a complete protein with all the Amino Acids.
I was very interested to learn that protein provides for biochemical reactions or enzymes such as in saliva. Im sure the quality of saliva helps with the absorption of nutrients in our food. Children are more aware of nutrition and so a lesson on the nutrition of seafood would be right on trend. The need for supplements would be greatly lessened if seafood as a source of Vitamin D and Omega 3 oils was consumed instead.
The ARC video lessons are great starting points for SESE lessons. The general awareness of the children of aquaculture is given in video 1. Then the SESE and SPHE elements are brought to the fore by lesson/video 2 where nutrition is the topic. Children are growing more aware of nutrition and elements like Iron, minerals, Protein and Omega 3 oils etc are included in the lessons and could be extended by the children exploring these elements in other fish and other foods. The SPHE/SESE element would be to the fore again with Lesson 3 where the socioeconomic benefits of aquaculture can be explored. A drama about emigration could be created and the happier scenario of young people returning to work in aquaculture in the various jobs could be enacted.
The sustainability of aquaculture is also an interesting topic and I would have a discussion with the children about water quality, overfishing, protecting our fish, and any other environmental issues arising from the issues raised in the video.
These lessons can all be used to stimulate the children’s interest in Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction as the videos bring up the need for design and building. Mini fish farm models could be constructed.
Children could be asked to create an Online Survey asking other children in the school how much seafood they eat and what their favourite seafood is. This could be presented as a graph using Mathematical skills. Working online encourages the children, and in particular we want to encourage girls to get into ICT, especially in the are of coding. The children could use Scratch or any programming language to create their own questions in a survey.
This would go some way to putting any concerns in the schools SSE report with regard to STEM into action, in the area of encouraging all students to become computer literate, not just as users but also as creators.
Deirdre the literacy and drama ideas are very good and imaginative.
The ARC videos are a good starting point for discussions and activities. They would provide great starting points for Art SPHE and SESE lessons
I agree Laura that the Aquaculture industry provides a great opportunity for studying specific marine biology and marine engineering etc. It is good for colleges to get involved and to work in tandem with the industry to meet future needs as the industry grows and branches out into the farming of other species of marine life
Aquaculture farms are a great industry for the West Coast of Ireland because generally speaking the land along this coast is not that suitable for agricultural farming. The area is generally less populated than the East Coast and so the requirement for seclusion for aquaculture is satisfied once popular areas or beaches are avoided in the location of Aquacultural farms. They are a great contribution to the socio-economic life of the communities in Donegal, Mayo Galway and other counties along the Atlantic West Coast. Only 1-2% of Irish waters are currently being used for Aquaculture so it would seem that there is a good future ahead to provide employment to people who can stay in their communities or move to the West from other places. The coastlie is ideal because it offers deep water, strong currents or sheltered areas with gentle currents, and nutrient rich water that is unpolluted.
Jobs like Skippering a boat, Marine engineering, diving, seafood processing, graphic designers for food packaging, health & safety workers, passenger boat skippers and in radio communications are all possible employment options for these areas that have been traditionally depleted by emigration.
So the farming of salmon, oysters and mussels as the top 3 species is a promising future for these counties.
The course content is very well presented with all the beautiful footage on the videos. Nice office surroundings for people who work in aquaculture !!
The 4 videos for children are very good quality and are lively as well as being educational covering what Aquaculture actually is, nutrition, community jobs and sustainability.
These topics would create great opportunities for discussions with the children. Nutrition is a big topic in society with ore people aware of protein Vitamin D, minerals and Omega 3 in particular. I think this would have a big impact on students. I also thikn children who would like to work outdoors and with nature might be attracted to a job in aquaculture after seeing these lessons.
Concern about the environment is dealt with in the 4th video and brings up the importance of water quality, overfishing, and would lead to discussions on the environmental issues around the sea, rivers and lakes.
Of course the ARC classroom would be great to get into the school but I see theres a big waiting list.
I agree Shirley, the history was fascinating and I was surprised to see Ireland only getting involved in aquaculture in 1970s. Of course there was always fishing but farming at sea has become such a huge industry in Ireland now
That sounds like a great plan Monica to bring the life of William Parsons to life again. Bringing Astronomy into it naturally, it is an exciting subject for children with curious minds. Representing this through Art would be lovely as would the creative writing as the children’s imaginations would surely bring up interesting ideas and themes
I would explore the River Liffey which flows through Celbridge through Drama.
The subjects of Maths, Geography, history and Art would be integrated in this project based on the natural heritage of the river flowing through our town.
I would ask the children to design artwork that would depict the flow of the river in costumes of fabric or paper. Children could mimic rapids and represent dams for hydroelectricity in 3 places.
Towns along the way could be represented by children displaying landmarks of the towns, Blessington, Kilcullen, Newbridge, Clane, Celbridge, Lucan Leixlip, Chapelizod and finally Dublin City and the bay.
The average flow of the Liffey in cubic metres is 14 m3 so a physical cubic metre could be created and give the children an idea of its actual volume of 1000 litres. In August the average flow is approx 4m3 and in December its approx 30m3.
The source of the Liffey is in Kippure which is 500m above sea level.
The Vikings and Normans could be represented with the former building the first town at the mouth of the river.
The 2 canals could also be represented connecting the Liffey to the Shannon.
The overall path of the river is 125km and it could be represented with the directions of going West from Kippure, then North and then East and into Dublin Bay.
It is a rich subject and of course the children would have their own ideas to contribute which would make it more interesting.
Bringing the various subjects into one to create a dramatic representation of the path of the River Liffey.
I agree Megan that the scavenger hunts would be filed under wellbeing. I also think the Flower Insect Timed Count is also a wellbeing activity as it is a form of mindfulness. The children would be totally absorbed in watching for insects in the 50cm square and when emptying the mind in typical mindfulness can be difficult for most people, having an activity that involves being outdoors in nature is perfect for mindfulness
Its a good idea Diarmaid to start with the 2D maps and to then extend to 3D maps. The 2D maps will be a good guide for scale in the making of the 3D maps
