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I believe Aquaculture has great potential to enhance Stem education across a range of curricular areas. It allows kids ignite their curiosity, creativity along with art and design. I found the comparison between diving and being in space a cool video which grab children’s attention straight away. The ARC is a much watch and from here the could be the basis of many lesson in different subjects. I would like to carry a lesson in maths to investigate the figures of people involved in the aquaculture economy and calculate the revenue’s generated and the influence it has on local area and the benefits to the exchequer nationally. Graphs could be completed over a few years to show how the sector is progressing, this could entice the kids to seek employment in years to come if they choose to follow career paths in STEM subject areas. I would also like to carry out a project in history to study where aquaculture began and the journey it has taken since both locally and worldwide, this could easily incorporate both an art and geography lesson. I would hope to carry out a mapping exercise to show where aquaculture take places in Ireland. In Art I would to construct a model farm. I feel a visit from the ARC bus could be a great starting point for lessons in Aquaculture. The responses to the lessons could be used in SSE process to inform of teaching and learning.
Hi Sandra, I agree that we are so lucky to have such a wonderful and natural coastline along the Atlantic way. I was on holiday over the Summer in Conemara and it was a great reminder of how unique our coastline is. It is important to show off the natural beauty and make it an attractive place to both visit and also go work in the local economy. Aquaculture and the fish industry both represent opportunities for employment.
Upon investigation it is clear that the Irish aquaculture is an important part of the Irish seafood economy and the economy in general. It provides employment in peripheral regions where the tendancy is for people to move away in search of employment. The aquaculture is mainly located in 11 bays along the Atlantic coast and in 2020 the figures show that these farms employed 1385 workers and generated over 34 million in wages. This is no doubt a massive boost for these areas and generates spending locally to help boost the economy and keep towns/villages vibrant. Aquaculture offers accessible jobs to local people, flexible employment and this has allowed access to external markets. When putting all of this together it is clear to see that aquaculture is vital component it the economy of these areas, it helps to keep areas populated and possibly bring people in search of work in the industry. There is also significant fiscal boost to the revenue both directly and indirectly give the figures and money generated overall.
I like your idea Eimear of using the tools provided in module 1 to open the mindsets of kids about the sea and ecosystems, I live in the midlands and sometimes we can forget about our oceans and animal life in the water. There is excellent ways in the course to bring us information and experiences of this way of life.
I really enjoyed the first module, it has opened my eyes to the whole area of aquaculture that occurs in Ireland. It is not something that I would really have studied before. I particularly like the Arc bus, this is a fantastic idea and would be a great experience for it to visit any school. I teach in the midlands and it would be more intriguing for kids who don’t get to coastal areas too often and would give an almost real life experience of fish and aquaculture. The long waiting list for visits shows how big the demand is for the activity. The Social License gives great access to explore the sea and aquaculture, both Taste the Atlantic and Burren Smokehouse could be an idea basis for a school tour or field trip. The Burren Smokehouse looked cool and gives an insight into fishing and along the tools that required to work on the sea. I have a love for SESE subjects and there is great scope for integration here, the history of aquaculture would link in with Digital learning throughout research work on Ipads and Laptops.
I like the idea of your research question as it is likely to become an issue for our island in the future, the causes of it need to be explored by all young and old.
Research Question. How does climate affect all animals?
I would like to focus on this question because I come from a farming background and in recent years I have seen farms in my local area grow become way more modern sometimes at the expense of nature. Trees, hedge rows, natural marsh areas have been reclaimed and so on to allow for expansion, increased use of chemical fertiliser and slurry spreading are now widespread to feed often overstocked farms. This has proved costly for wildlife in the area as a result. This would be an interesting topic to explore with children, I focus on the investigation of habitat loss, simple surveys locally around the school could be carried out here, through study of old and current photographs, google earth/satellite image to determine loss of trees, forest and green areas to buildings. How rising temperatures are affecting vegetation,. How building and deforestation have force animals to change and move. The investigations of this could be completely on surveying the school locality. As extensions to the lesson, we will investigate animal life at sea and a case study of another country with a different climate.
I think a debate on this topic could work well, it would be interesting to see their arguments and possible solutions.
The documentary Home provides a clear insight into climate change and how humans continue to influence it all over the world. The visual footage of 54 countries displays the pressure humanity is placing on the world. The most striking for aspect of it for me is the large numbers of people that are suffering in a modern world and world leaders continue to allow it happen. The figures provided towards the end give a clear picture of the severe consequences and problems that face so many people throughout the world. Its horrifying to see people without food, clean water, adequate aid and refugee numbers growing. The cost of our actions is so severe. This is where I would like to focus in on in school. I believe it is important to show and talk about with the kids from a young age to help them understand the problems and hope that they will make better decisions as they move through life. They will go on to make good environmental decisions and influences around them to all to do so. Ireland’s climate change video gives a clear indication of the plan for climate change action, it will be interesting to see in time how successful it will be.
I found the Paxi video to be very informative.It would be an ideal starting point on the topic of the Greenhouse effect. It shows clearly what is happening in the atmosphere and the effects people are having on it. Prior to the showing the video, I would like to complete the greenhouse gas experiment with the peat in the plastic bottles to help the children grasp concepts of what is actually happening. It would be a lovely way for the kids to actively engage in the process of the greenhouse gas effect with a hands on approach. Following the video I would like to take class on a tour of the school and surrounding areas to actually investigate what changes have been made to the natural environment, eg house’s shops, farms and possibly observe traffic on the roads to determine what is actually causing the release of carbon dioxide in the the atmosphere. By doing so it would children to gain an insight into the whole situation rather just explaining it. The you tube video ‘ Story of Fossil Fuels’ would also be a helpful resource to use.
I would use the tool for predicting future temperatures afterwards.
The idea of taking pictures during the year of the garden is cool, a lovely way to the show the children the effects of weather and seasonal change during the year.
I enjoyed the content provided in module 1. There was excellent examples provided to explain the sometimes difficult concepts of weather and climate. I hope to use the ESA resources and adopt an across the curriculum approach to this. I like the activity on weather and climate. Getting the children to discuss this together should be interesting as to gain their response on their understanding of the topic. Allowing them to link weather to special events in their minds will help gain an insight on how weather can affect their lives, did it rain for my birthday? Did the weather affect our holidays? Snow days from school? Sports days? I think this is an excellent starting point on weather/climate as it makes it real for the kids and not just referring to the weather in general context. Pair -shared work could be very useful to allow the kids engage in meaningful conversation on the impact weather can have on their lives. I also like the idea of weather journals to help identify weather patterns and as a class activity, they could complete their own weather proverbs.
Becoming weather detectives looks a ideal lesson to help children get active in exploring weather and climate, I hope to set up a weather station in my classroom to collect data and display for all to study. I will be aiming to set up different weather instruments to carry out investigations. I will give the opportunity for children to take home the thermometer at the weekends and compare different readings. By doing so we will collecting a lot of data and this will give the children a good sense of responsibility. We will be using be maths and art to display the information gathered. We have weekly assembly’s in our school, I will the class opportunities to present the work they complete by being weather detectives.