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I can really relate to this as I also teach in a junior school in a busy urban area of Dublin, where the beach isn’t something the children have on their doorstep. We are lucky, however, to have Tymon Park just across from our school, including its pond and natural habitat, so this gives us a great local resource for teaching children about wildlife, habitats and looking after the environment. At the same time, quite a few of our children have mobile homes in seaside areas in Wexford and Waterford, so they would have experience of beaches and the sea through weekends and holidays there. This could be a lovely way of encouraging them to share their own experiences and make connections between what we are learning in school and places that are familiar to them.
I also love your Aistear ideas, as activities like a recycling station and using recycled materials for art are such simple and practical ways of making sustainability meaningful for younger children. Like your school, I think it is important for us to make the most of the environment that is actually available to the children locally. Even if the sea isn’t on our doorstep, there are still so many opportunities to teach them about caring for their environment and the small part they can play in protecting it.
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Assignment 1:
Sustainability is something that has become much more important in our school over the last few years, particularly through our involvement in the Green-Schools programme. We achieved our first Green Flag for Litter and Waste this year, which was a great achievement for our whole school. As we are a junior school, we spend two years working towards each flag. I think this works really well with younger children as it gives them plenty of time to understand the message and, more importantly, develop good habits around litter, recycling and reducing waste.
In September we will begin working towards our second Green Flag, which is Energy. I think this will be a great opportunity to build on the children’s understanding of sustainability. We can start with very simple things that they can relate to, such as turning off lights when we leave a room, switching off classroom equipment when it isn’t being used and thinking about how we can use less energy both at school and at home. We could also carry out a simple energy survey of the school, with the children looking for lights, screens or other equipment that may have been left on unnecessarily. This would make the learning practical and give the children some ownership of it.
We are also very lucky with our local environment. Tymon Park is just across from our school, so despite being in a busy urban area of Dublin, we have a fantastic green space right on our doorstep. The park has a pond with the plants, animals and wildlife associated with a natural pond habitat, which would be a great resource for our younger children. We could visit the pond, observe what is living and growing there and talk about how the different parts of the habitat depend on each other. This could lead very naturally into discussions about litter, pollution and why it is so important that we protect and care for local habitats. Using somewhere that many of the children already know would make the idea of sustainability much more real and meaningful to them.
What I particularly like about our Green-Schools journey is that the children are gradually learning that sustainability involves much more than simply putting something in the correct bin. The module describes sustainability as using resources responsibly today so that they are still available for future generations. Our move from Litter and Waste to Energy, alongside exploring and caring for our local environment, is a very practical way of developing this understanding.
For junior children, I think this practical approach is much more meaningful than trying to explain sustainability as a huge global issue. If we can help them develop small habits from Junior Infants onwards and give them opportunities to care for the environment around them, hopefully being more sustainable will simply become part of what they do.
Assignment 2:
I think one of the main things I have taken from this module is that being more sustainable doesn’t always require huge changes. There are lots of small things that both myself and the children can do every day, and I think this is particularly important when teaching younger children. They need to see sustainability as something they can actually take part in rather than something that is too big for them to understand.
In school, we can continue with simple habits such as using the correct bins, reducing the amount of paper we use, reusing materials for art and construction, using reusable bottles and trying not to waste food. As we begin working towards our Energy Green Flag, we can also become more conscious of turning off lights, interactive boards and other equipment when they are not needed and not wasting water.
I think there is also a very important link between what happens in school and what happens at home. Children can be great at bringing messages home and reminding the adults around them! We could encourage them to think about whether lights or televisions are being left on, whether things can be reused instead of thrown away, how much food is being wasted and whether they are recycling correctly at home. Walking, cycling or using public transport where possible could also be discussed as another way families can make more sustainable choices.
This module has also made me think more about what we buy and where it comes from. The course encourages us to consider the labels we look for when buying sustainable food and how our choices as consumers can make a difference. This could be explored very simply with younger children by looking at food packaging, where products come from and whether we really need to buy something new or could reuse something we already have.
I think with younger children it is really about making these little things part of the normal school day. They are actually very good at reminding us to turn off lights, use the right bin or not waste things once they get into the habit of doing it! Hopefully, if we keep reinforcing these simple messages in school, some of them will make their way home too and become habits that the children carry with them as they get older.
Sustainability is something that has become much more important in our school over the last few years, particularly through our involvement in the Green-Schools programme. We achieved our first Green Flag for Litter and Waste this year, which was a great achievement for our whole school. As we are a junior school, we spend two years working towards each flag. I think this works really well with younger children as it gives them plenty of time to understand the message and, more importantly, develop good habits around litter, recycling and reducing waste.
In September we will begin working towards our second Green Flag, which is Energy. I think this will be a great opportunity to build on the children’s understanding of sustainability. We can start with very simple things that they can relate to, such as turning off lights when we leave a room, switching off classroom equipment when it isn’t being used and thinking about how we can use less energy both at school and at home. We could also carry out a simple energy survey of the school, with the children looking for lights, screens or other equipment that may have been left on unnecessarily. This would make the learning practical and give the children some ownership of it.
We are also very lucky with our local environment. Tymon Park is just across from our school, so despite being in a busy urban area of Dublin, we have a fantastic green space right on our doorstep. The park has a pond with the plants, animals and wildlife associated with a natural pond habitat, which would be a great resource for our younger children. We could visit the pond, observe what is living and growing there and talk about how the different parts of the habitat depend on each other. This could lead very naturally into discussions about litter, pollution and why it is so important that we protect and care for local habitats. Using somewhere that many of the children already know would make the idea of sustainability much more real and meaningful to them.
What I particularly like about our Green-Schools journey is that the children are gradually learning that sustainability involves much more than simply putting something in the correct bin. The module describes sustainability as using resources responsibly today so that they are still available for future generations. Our move from Litter and Waste to Energy, alongside exploring and caring for our local environment, is a very practical way of developing this understanding.
For junior children, I think this practical approach is much more meaningful than trying to explain sustainability as a huge global issue. If we can help them develop small habits from Junior Infants onwards and give them opportunities to care for theI think all of the points you have made are excellent and I agree with them all. The School Meals Programme has really brought healthy eating to the forefront, and I particularly agree about the link between good nutrition, behaviour and self-regulation. Encouraging children to try new foods, the positive influence of eating with their peers, and teaching them about the nutritional benefits of foods such as fish are all really important ways we can help children develop healthier eating habits.
I found this module very interesting as healthy eating is something that comes up regularly in a junior classroom and is a topic that the children can easily relate to. I liked looking at the Food Pyramid again and particularly at where fish and seafood fit into a balanced diet. The module also gave me a better understanding of some of the nutrients found in seafood. I knew that fish was a good source of protein, but I hadn’t really thought about the amount of iron in mussels and oysters, or the importance of oily fish such as salmon as a source of Vitamin D and Omega-3.
There are lots of simple ways I could bring this learning into a junior classroom. I would use pictures of different foods and get the children to sort them into the different sections of the Food Pyramid. We could look specifically at different types of fish and shellfish and talk in very simple terms about how different foods help our bodies to grow and stay healthy. This could lead naturally into oral language, sorting and categorising activities and discussions about the foods the children themselves are familiar with.
I particularly liked the Eye Spy in the Supermarket activity. I could adapt this for younger children by bringing in pictures or clean food packaging and getting them to look for fish products, where they come from and some of the symbols and labels on the packaging. The activity is designed to introduce children to fresh, locally grown and sustainable seafood and to help them recognise Irish and sustainable seafood when shopping. I think this could also be a nice home-school link, as the children could look for seafood products and labels the next time they are shopping with their families.
I also loved seeing The Salmon of Knowledge included in the module. This would be a lovely way of bringing the topic into storytelling with younger children and then linking the story back to what we have learned about salmon. Overall, I think this module has shown me that teaching about seafood doesn’t have to be a stand-alone lesson. It can be very easily linked with healthy eating, Science, SPHE, Geography, oral language and storytelling, while giving the children some useful learning that relates to their everyday lives.Hi Rachel. I really liked your point about looking at both direct and indirect employment, as I hadn’t really thought about how many different jobs can come from one industry. I also agree that the ARC resources lend themselves really well to integrated learning, particularly when STEM is linked with areas such as Geography, SPHE and literacy. Your idea of using SSE to look at the STEM experiences children are already getting across the school is a great starting point before deciding where improvements could be made.
I have a real interest in STEM and I am always looking for ways of making it practical and meaningful for younger children. What I liked about the Aquaculture Remote Classroom (ARC) resources is that aquaculture can be used as a starting point for so many different areas of STEM, rather than teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths as completely separate subjects. This fits well with the STEM Education Policy, which encourages children to question, explore, work together, solve problems and design and make things.
In a junior classroom, I would obviously adapt the ARC activities to suit the age of the children. I could see us exploring different types of sea life, looking at where our seafood comes from, using maps, sorting and counting, carrying out simple investigations and using construction materials to design boats, fish farms or other structures. There would also be great opportunities for oral language and new vocabulary. I particularly like that STEM at this age can be very hands-on and playful. The STEM Policy recognises that young children naturally learn about STEM through creative, practical and multisensory experiences, which is very much how I see STEM working in a junior classroom.
This is also very relevant at the moment as we are beginning to engage with the redeveloped Primary School Curriculum in our school. STEM Education is now one of the five curriculum areas and, within this, the new Science, Technology and Engineering (STE) specification sits alongside the Primary Mathematics Curriculum and an approach to Integrated STEM Learning. I think this gives us a great opportunity as a school to look at the STEM learning that is already happening in our classrooms and how we can build on it. In a junior school especially, I like the emphasis on children exploring, questioning, investigating, designing and learning through practical experiences. Resources such as the ARC could fit very naturally into this approach and give us another practical way of bringing STEM learning to life for our children.
The SSE process in school is very important and I think STEM could be a very worthwhile area to look at on a whole-school basis. In our DEIS school, our SSE process is incorporated into our DEIS Action Plan, so I would see STEM becoming part of that process rather than something separate. We could begin by looking at the STEM experiences we already provide across the school, because I think we would probably find that there is much more happening than we realise. We could gather some simple evidence from teachers and pupils, look at what is working well and identify areas we would like to develop. From there, we could agree a small number of realistic actions and then review the impact they are having on teaching and learning. This fits well with the SSE process of identifying a focus, gathering evidence, developing and implementing an improvement plan and monitoring its impact.
For me, it would be particularly important that any whole-school STEM focus is inclusive and accessible to all of our children. I was interested to see that the STEM Policy specifically refers to children experiencing educational disadvantage and children with special educational needs, as well as improving STEM achievement in DEIS schools. This is very relevant in our own school. I think resources such as the ARC could support this really well because they provide a real-life context for learning and give children opportunities to learn through talking, exploring, investigating and doing. I would love to see STEM becoming something that is naturally part of everyday teaching and learning across our school.I like how you have linked the aquaculture topic with the children’s own local area in Kerry, as it makes the learning much more real for them. I also think the imaginary aquaculture farm is a lovely idea, as the children would have to think about what they have learned before choosing a suitable location. It is a great example of how one activity can bring Geography, Maths and Science together quite naturally.
<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Assignment 1</span>
I found the map plotting activity interesting, although I would definitely need to simplify it for the younger children I teach. I liked the idea of using satellite images on the interactive whiteboard and asking the children to identify things they recognise such as the sea, beaches, harbours, islands and rivers. I would probably start with Dublin, as this is familiar to them, and then move across the map to the west coast. We could compare the two areas and talk about some of the differences we notice.
I particularly liked the idea of using the letters F, M and O to decide where a fish, mussel or oyster farm could go. For junior children, I would make this even more visual by using pictures of the different species and letting the children place them on a large map or on the interactive whiteboard. I think this would be a simple and enjoyable way of introducing early map skills and positional language, while also making links with Geography, Maths and Science.<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Assignment 2</span>
Growing up in Mayo, I was always familiar with the sea and with small coastal towns and villages, but I don’t think I ever really considered the importance of aquaculture to these communities. This module made me look at the west coast a little differently and think about why aquaculture is so well suited to these areas. The sheltered bays, inlets and coastline along the west provide the right conditions for different types of aquaculture.
I now teach children in Dublin West, so I think there is a nice opportunity here to use the topic to compare different parts of Ireland and the types of work associated with them. The children are very familiar with an urban environment, so looking at life and employment in a small coastal community would be quite a different experience for them.
What I found particularly interesting was that aquaculture isn’t just about the people working directly on a fish or shellfish farm. It can have a much wider effect on a community by providing employment and supporting local families and businesses. The course material highlights the close connection between Ireland’s coastal areas, the people who live there and the economic activity taking place along the coast.
For me, this would be a good way of helping younger children begin to understand that where we live can influence how we live and work, and that life in different parts of Ireland can look very different.I can really relate to working in an inland school, as I teach in Dublin West where the closest water to many of our children is the canal. Aquaculture is not something they would come across very often, so I think these resources are a great way of introducing it to them. I also agree that it is a lovely way to get children thinking about sustainability and caring for our environment.
One thing that struck me during this module was how far removed aquaculture is from the everyday lives of many of the children I teach. I am originally from Mayo, where the sea, fishing and coastal communities are much more familiar, but I now teach in a DEIS 1 junior school in Dublin West. We are nowhere near the sea or a river and, for many of our children, the closest water to them is the canal. Some of our children may not get many opportunities to visit the coast, so learning about aquaculture and where our seafood actually comes from could be something completely new to them.
Of the Social License projects, the Aquaculture Remote Classroom (ARC) appealed to me most. I really liked the idea of bringing the experience to the children rather than expecting them to already have that background knowledge or experience. I think this is particularly important in an urban school. The ARC itself would be a fantastic experience, but even the online resources give us a way of bringing some of this into the classroom.
I also liked how the four videos approached aquaculture from different angles – what aquaculture actually is, the nutritional value of seafood, the connection with local communities and the importance of sustainability. With junior children I obviously wouldn’t use everything as it is presented, but there is plenty that could be adapted. I could see myself using short sections of the videos, photographs and lots of discussion. There are easy links with Science, Geography, healthy eating and caring for the environment.
I think introducing children to aquaculture at an early age is worthwhile, particularly for children who don’t live anywhere near the sea. It gives them a little window into a very different part of Irish life and might even encourage some of them to become curious about places, jobs and communities that they haven’t come across before.
One thing that struck me during this module was how far removed aquaculture is from the everyday lives of many of the children I teach. I am originally from Mayo, where the sea, fishing and coastal communities are much more familiar, but I now teach in a DEIS 1 junior school in Dublin West. We are nowhere near the sea or a river and, for many of our children, the closest water to them is the canal. Some may have had very little opportunity to experience the coast or see where seafood actually comes from.
I think this is where resources such as the videos, photographs and ARC could be really useful. They can bring experiences into the classroom that our children may not otherwise have. With younger children, I would keep it very visual and use lots of talk, pictures and simple activities. It could link naturally with Science, Geography, healthy eating and caring for our environment. Most importantly, it gives our children an opportunity to learn about a part of Ireland and Irish life that may be very different from their own experience.