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Hi Laura,
Our theme for our next An Taisce Green Flag will be Global Citizenship and the Marine Environment and you’re idea of promoting reduced use of single use plastics in school is an idea I will certainly aim for in 2025/26. I’m wondering if our Green School Ambassadors might audit the usage of SUP in Sept and again in June and maybe school crested reusable bottles could be a fundraising project for our Young Entrepreneurs Project. Lots to think about!!
Involving children in a beach clean at Rossnowlagh Beach offers wide-ranging benefits that go beyond just tidying the shore. It can impact their personal development, community awareness, and environmental responsibility. By getting students involved in a local beach clean they can learn first-hand about marine pollution and its impact on wildlife. Seeing litter on the sand and in the tide gives them a real, tangible connection to issues like plastic waste and ocean health. It can also promote a sense of responsibility and pride in caring for their local environment. Friends of Rossnowlagh is a local action community group focussed on promoting and protecting Rossnowlagh Beach as an important local amenity in South Donegal. In collaboration with Clean Coasts project, Donegal Co. Council and Flossie and The Beach charity, children could see themselves as active citizens contributing to the well-being of their own community while increasing their feeling of connectedness to their home, heritage, and natural surroundings. As emphasised in Module 5, it is essential that children learn about sustainability, responsible consumption and production from an from an early. Involvement in a monthly Beach Clean Inspires Lifelong Sustainability Values. A hands-on activity like this makes environmental issues personal and memorable and children are more likely to adopt eco-friendly habits at home (recycling, reducing single-use plastics) and advocate for sustainability in the future.
As Saoirse Ronan said in the Bord Bia promo “We haven’t inherited the earth from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children”
Hi
Meal Planning is a great way for students to engage with the Food Pyramid especially for any 6th class students hoping to study Home Economics in post primary where meal prep for differing groups of people is required. It amazes me how aware young children are these days about nutrition and I think highlighting natural sources of protein, as Module 4 has done, will refocus them away from the highly processed protein alternatives they see on supermarket shelves constantly.
Teaching children about the nutrition of seafood is important for several reasons that connect to health, learning, and future lifestyle choices. It can promote healthy eating habits by teaching them that seafood is rich in high-quality protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins (like D and B12), and minerals (iodine, selenium, zinc) encouraging children to develop balanced diets and carry healthy habits into adulthood. Teaching children that seafood strengthens bones, muscles, and the immune system helps them make informed food choices. It develops food literacy—understanding what’s in food, where the food originates and why it matters. Linking seafood nutrition to better learning outcomes can help children see how food directly affects their ability to do well in school – focusing on Omega 3 fatty acids and introducing fun activities/project work titles like “Seafood Superpowers” or the Seafood Eye spy activity. Teaching the Food Pyramid in its entirety is so important in our primary classrooms.
Although, our students are not purchasing their own food, nowadays they have a huge influence on what is bought and cooked in their homes. Each year I cover the Food Pyramid/Pirimid an Bhia with my class, usually focussing on encouraging a more balanced, varied diet “Eat the Rainbow” and Fairtrade products on the shelves of our supermarkets but this year I will definitely use the slides from Module 4 to focus on Seafood and the ASC/MSC/Green Origin labelling with my students.
Hi Aaron,
I love your idea of interviewing those involved in various capacities in the Fishing industry in Clare. We have a few oyster farms near our school which I will definitely link up with when we return to school. I’d love to organise a visit and perhaps even some oyster tasting!!
I can definitely see how the ARC’s online lessons and resources could enrich my teaching, aligned with Ireland’s STEM Education Policy Statement and our school’s SSE process. Reflecting on the Aquaculture Remote Classroom (ARC) online lessons and resources reveals rich opportunities to elevate my teaching through real-world, inquiry-based STEM education. These materials—covering aquaculture fundamentals, Ireland’s coastal geography, socio-economic impact, nutrition, and sustainability—offer powerful, curriculum-aligned content across SESE Science, Geography, SPHE, and Mathematics. In line with the STEM Education Policy Statement, leveraging ARC resources through their highly engaging and interactive online lessons supports:
Nurturing learner engagement through immersive, highly relevant marine ecosystems and food systems topics,
Enhancing teacher capacity to deliver cross-disciplinary, creative STEM learning,
Enabling evidence-informed practice via inquiry tasks and authentic contexts
Regrettably, living and teaching in close proximity to mussel and oyster farms (as I do), doesn’t necessarily mean that children/adults understand or have a full appreciation for the role aquaculture plays in our local area/economy and may be just as much susceptible to misinformation, so using particularly Lesson 2 – The Nutrition of Seafood for clarification will be of enormous benefit.Using the BIM ARC online STEM lessons could help amplify the ARC’s real-world relevance while driving continuous improvement through SSE—ultimately engaging learners and building a sustainable, dynamic STEM-learning culture.
Hi Sylvia,
That is an impressive lesson plan! I could imagine getting much more than 1 hour out of all that lesson content – never mind all the Geography county work and Maths co-ordinate geometry that would need to be covered in advance of the lesson itself.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Aquaculture farms in Ireland are primarily located along sheltered bays, estuaries, and coastal inlets where conditions support the growth of salmon, mussels, oysters, and seaweed. These locations are not only biologically rich but are also deeply connected to Ireland’s cultural and economic identity and the placement of the aquaculture farms is a careful balancing of environmental suitability, access to infrastructure, and community engagement.
Clearly aquaculture offers significant socio-economic benefits for coastal communities that have historically relied on the sea for their livelihoods. In Ireland, aquaculture provides local employment, often in areas where alternative job opportunities are scarce. From hatcheries to harvesting and processing, these farms support both skilled and seasonal work, helping to sustain rural populations. Also, aquaculture encourages economic resilience by diversifying coastal economies beyond tourism and traditional fishing. Clearly balancing environmental protection with economic development is needed in ensuring that aquaculture in Ireland is not just an industry, but a partnership that sustains both the sea and the people who live beside it.
Hi Catherine,
As I read your post it reminded me of when I began teaching in a DEIS school in Ballymun (a long time ago now!) We were covering the theme of seaside and beaches and after a weekend home in Donegal, I filled the boot with all sorts of shells, wrack, seaweed and a few crab shells. The children were fascinated and that seaside pack did the rounds of the school that year and for a few years after. We used them for sorting, matching, tracing, drama etc. I think a combination of the wonderful visuals and interactives offered by ARC with real hands on materials is a wonderful engaging and memorable experience for learners.( I am one of the classes on the ARC long waiting list 🙂 )
In the teaching and learning of Aquaculture and Social License the use of interactive tools as discussed in Module 1 would make the learning process engaging, meaningful and memorable. The use of the simulations would simplify big concepts like ecosystems and sustainability while also increasing engagement and motivation as the learners learn through playful interactions. The collaborative activities would encourage communication and critical thinking through trial, error and reflection. Perhaps most significantly is that all of the resources mentioned in Module 1 would encourage the children see direct links between classroom activities and how food is produced in the real world. This strengthens relevance and helps them understand their role as future consumers and decision-makers.
Learning about Aquaculture and Social License could help my students learn where their seafood comes from and how it affects ecosystems. They could develop early awareness of sustainability, ocean health, and food security. They can connect classroom learning to real-world environmental challenges like overfishing, pollution, and climate change. STEM lessons would be an ideal place for me to teach this as aquaculture links directly to science: biology (fish lifecycles), technology (farming systems), and sustainability (renewable practices).
Science Week Class Plan
In advance, using school communication platform Aladdin, share with parents and guardians the aim of Science Week and give some ideas for home-school links in relation to Science and offer them the chance to share their ideas/creations .
Monday: Design a Martian. Examine images of Mars. Design in a 3D
form using dough or clay. Early finishers: Design the landscape they would live on.
Tuesday: Shadows: Shadow tag and free play with shadows at 10 am, 12 noon and
2pm. Note the shape and size differences in the shadows (mark using chalks on the school yard in differing colours)
Wednesday: Stargazing. The learners investigate stars and
try to guess how many stars are in the universe. They create pictures
of a starry night using paint and toothbrushes to create copious amounts of
stars. Listen to Myles Smith’s Stargazing as they paint
Thursday: Creating Alien Slime: by
mixing fragranced shampoo or conditioner and cornflour together to create
a consistency that is neither a solid or liquid.
Friday: Rockets: Engage with a picture of a rocket. Listen to Chris Hadfield interview. Explore a variety of materials and plan a design to make a rocket. Use Milo and Marvin Balloon or Penny Rocket video for demonstration .Record activities throughout the week and ask the learners and teachers to provide feedback at next staff meeting.
Hi Dawn,
I agree totally, the Fizzy Launcher experiment goes down a treat with any class. Sometimes the simple ones are the best. The anticipation on the little faces is always fantastic. We extended that to do a comparative study on the impact different brands of liquid/sweets would have on the outcome with the children predicting, observing and recording the outcomes which linked in very well with measure and data analysis in Maths.
Hi Valerie,
I really like the idea of using fairy tales and familiar characters to introduce different types of homes. It would lend itself to a very effective STEM lesson in constructing different homes with a variety of materials and assessing them.
I would like to Focus on activity sets theme-Where we Live??
This topic can be covered from so many many areas of the wider curriculum as well as through Science. It could become the BIG IDEA for a month. Sa Bhaile/Mo Theach/Habitats/ Home & Abroad/ Foodwebs/Materials could all be covered.
I have found SCRATCH coding is a great way to encourage children to research various habitats and present the most interesting information they have found via a SCRATCH project using text, images and sound which can be shared with their classmates.
In our school we celebrated EARTH DAY last April with a series of fun lessons and activities. We used Curious Minds resources and DPSM classroom supports.
I think next school year I will use Milo and Marvin when exploring magnetism and electricity- I love their Forced Comb experiment.
