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Hi Katie. I think you have listed some excellent points here, I really like your ideas. Thank you for sharing.
Sustainability is something that I think most schools and areas are trying to constantly improve on. Having studied this module, I think that we might be unaware of the many businesses and food groups that are trying to be more sustainable. I noticed that here in Cork, food producers like Bandon Co-Op and Clonakilty Food Company are all listed as part of Bord Bia’s Origin Green initiative.
In our school, we are trying to be more sustainable by using green travel systems and recycling as much as we can. The motto ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ is one that we try and follow to ensure that our resources and materials in school can be sustainable too.
To try and encourage our pupils to be more sustainable, in our STEM/SESE lessons we teach children about recycling, reducing electricity use and reducing water use. Taking our pupils out to the community to participate in local clean-ups, tidy-towns and planting is community gardens also teaches them about living sustainably.
This was a great module as it really made me reflect on my own eating habits and I realised I am not eating enough seafood. It is a macronutrient and fish contain a lot of protein so fish is essential for our health. Located on the middle layer of the food pyramid, we need to be aiming to eat 2 servings of fish/meat/eggs per day.
As teachers, there is a huge focus on health and nutrition in our classrooms. Most schools will have a healthy eating policy and we are regularly trying to teach the children about healthy foods. Now that I am more aware of the benefits of seafood, it is something I will remind the children about more often. It is something that we could also discuss as a staff so that when reviewing the healthy eating policy or teaching the food pyramid as part of SESE/SPHE, we could focus more on seafood too.
Hi Frances,
You have shared some good ideas here, I will also be telling my staff about the ARC in September, it’s an amazing resource so glad to have heard about it!
The lessons designed by the ARC link in very well with STEM education. There is huge scope for integration with maths, science, history, geography and technology/engineering. I would use these lessons to focus on the theme of aquaculture for the month, exploring our native fish, what fish we farm here in Ireland and the jobs around aquaculture.
I would explore aquaculture on the map to see where our fish farms are located and we could also look at food trails and experiences on the map. This would lead to lovely mapping activities for the children.
There are ample opportunities for hands-on, enquiry-based learning, which links in with the STEM Education Policy Statement.
When looking at STEM as part of the SSE process, these lessons help to remind us that we can start our learning in-school using lots of hands-on learning before looking at our communities and exploring the world around us, all as part of a wider discussion on aquaculture and our national heritage and jobs.Aquaculture farms are predominately on the western coast of Ireland. The shoreline with its many inlets and bays gives shelter necessary for aquaculture. I am originally from West Cork and fishing and aquaculture would be a very important industry there. Aquaculture contributes to communities by providing employment for many, it is a way of life for people who grew up fishing. Aquaculture and fishing provides an essential food source, both for locals and for distribution nationwide. Aquaculture creates interest and enthusiasm around sea life in an area and it can be a springboard for tourism to see fish farms, creating food trails or food innovation.
There is a huge emphasis on food now with fresh food and Irish food being celebrated on a national level. This has led to an increase in events such as food festivals, farmers’ markets are very popular and food trails for tourism. It is lovely to see Irish sea life and aquaculture being celebrated like this. The impact on the community is huge, from the fisherman to the child sitting at the table, aquaculture has an effect on us all.Hi Aisling. You have made some great points here and I think we will all be signing up for the ARC after seeing it on the videos here! I liked the link to the Salmon of Knowledge too, the children love that story and it would be a great starting point to introduce aquaculture.
The concept of aquaculture is new to me but I found this module very interesting. I feel it is something I don’t know a whole lot about and it is so important for us to understand the waters around us as well as where our food comes from. I think now more than ever, people want to know where their food originates from and when you look at the abundance of seafood we have, this is very relevant.
The BIM lessons and resources would be very useful in the classroom because they are child-friendly and include lots of videos and quizzes. I had never heard of the ARC classroom but it is something I would definitely sign up for after seeing it in action on video.
I had not heard of the term social licence before but having had a look at the BIM social licence report, I now understand that it involves the whole community. I think if we showed them some of these lessons and started a conversation around aquaculture in our classrooms, we could help contribute to a more positive social licence.
Hi Anita.
This sounds fantastic. I really like the ideas you have shared here, especially beginning the lesson with a storytelling session.
Describe how you would involve your pupils in an art, music drama or creative writing project based around your local natural or scientific heritage
Using our local woodland area as a basis for our project, I would use this as inspiration for an art project. We would begin by discussing and visiting the woods. We would record what plants and animals we see/hear in the woods and begin to gather items from the area to use as part of our art project. We could gather leaves, sticks, flowers, feathers etc. Once we have explored our local area, we would then return to school and discuss our findings.
As part of previous modules, we looked at creating maps of the area using the many resources available. I would love to create a new map using the items we had gathered in the woods – indicating where to see different wildlife and items of interest. The children could break into groups to work together. We could incorporate different materials too – string, felt, paint, lollipop sticks etc. This project could be done as a 2-D project or the pupils could go one step further to try and make it a 3-D project using recycled cardboard materials to create trees/bridges etc.
Hi Amanda.
I love the idea of a ‘bridge walk’ – especially when there are so many wonderful bridges in Dublin. It definitely would inspire the children to get creative!
Using the suspension bridge in Birr Castle Demesne or a bridge in your local area as inspiration, describe how you would plan a class or whole school challenge to design and make a bridge. How would you integrate mathematical thinking and incorporate the maths skills appropriate to your class level.
We are located in the countryside and have access to a local woodland area. In the woods, there is a lovely bridge that the children really enjoy crossing. I would use this as my prompt to spark curiosity and wonder. We would visit the bridge and take photos of it, sketch it and explore how much weight it can hold e.g. all the children can stand on the bridge no problem.
We would then return to school and I would set the children their own design challenge – to create a bridge that would hold the weight of a toy car or a lego car/people. The children would be broken into groups and would work collaboratively using recycled materials to create their bridge. I would integrate mathematical thinking by asking the children to use their rulers/measuring tapes to get the distance/height right and we could use tally charts to record types of materials used/how many lollipop sticks the bridge would hold etc.
I think the children would love this challenge and it integrates with so many subject areas.
Hi Emma.
You have shared some great tips here, both for at home and at school. I will take these on board for the coming year!
Outline how you would use some of the course resources to conduct a seasonal biodiversity project to run throughout the school year. What resources and recording sheets would you need? How often would you bring learning outdoors? How would you integrate other subject areas?
I thought there were fantastic resources shared in this module which would be of great use when conducting a seasonal biodiversity project. I really enjoyed learning about phenology and the farmer’s calendar. As I am teaching in a rural school, where many of the children come from a farming background, I think they would enjoy looking at this.
I would also use the various recording tools so that we could keep records of flora and fauna in our local area. We could examine a different area each season or term e.g. looking at birds/wildlife during one term and trees/flowers during another. I would bring the learning outdoors as much as possible, and we could choose one day a week to go out and record our findings so that we would have a bank of records over time. I think the children would love this too. Other subject areas could be integrated such as art, maths, science, English and Irish and PE.