Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The online lessons of nutrition, community, sustainability and aquaculture itself are a great resource and as said in one of the slides, STEM isn’t just Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths but cross curricular involving History Geography and the Arts. At a glance the nutrition aspect is of particular interest to me and in how I teach. There is the obvious science link but also some valuable links to SPHE and how to eat and live well. We have the raw materials all around us to live happy and healthy lives, why not eat more fish and support our native industry. From a school SSE perspective we have an opportunity to promote the healthy eating policy as well as the overall wellbeing of the school.
Many aspects of the geography curriculum come to mind from map reading, knowledge of the local coastal areas, human environments and contrasting how people live in different areas. As stated STEM should ignite children’s curiosity in both places and jobs and these lessons in the ARC can really inform young adults, perhaps even inspire and motivate.
Perhaps the most important lesson is sustainability, it is critical for our modern reckless world where environmental awareness is just a buzz word rather than something that should be acted on. These lessons can push schools in their SSE to strive towards Blue schools awards and develop more awareness for the children in how critical it is to protect our oceans and sea environment.
A quick reflection on the lesson plan is the many skills used, spatial awareness for plotting where to put the oyster bags, use of the distance scale or key to see how far from shore, reading tidal books to explore the times for harvesting and turning. Looking at the contours for the sea depth which is a step further than looking at the contours on land which children are most familiar with, lots to work with from a teaching point of view.
Aquacultural from a socio economic viewpoint is absolutely vital in more rural areas of Ireland. The earlier slides touched on the fact that agriculture in some parts of the country is not always viable due to poor soil etc. but also at specific times of the year, mostly winter, aquaculture might be the only means of income. With a lot of aquaculture focused along the west coast it can help to allievate the employment problems that the west has suffered in the past. There’s the added bonus of seasonal work for students etc. As previously mentioned there are many jobs created both directly and indirectly, farmers, technicians, processing plants, drivers, shops and of course restaurants, chefs and waiters. With many aquacultural farms needing specialised areas to function away from touristy areas, the importance of employment to people living in these areas cannot be underestimated.
Michaela makes a good point about our stewardship of the environment to protect not just our wildlife but also the jobs that are sustained by the local natural environment. Mark has a good point about keeping young people local as their is more employment. Almost everyone has mentioned in some form the importance of employment both directly and indirectly, skilled and unskilled.
A fair point made by Mark above is that science shouldn’t exist in a vaccum and with these tools there is a meaningful engagement with science and with our surroundings and environment. The use of the interactive tools such as the quizzes and interviews with family members is also a great tool.
There are some great tools, videos and practical work here for students. The cartoon character, although perhaps a bit cheesy for older students, will stimulate the interest particularly of the younger children and it is important to get children involved in aquaculture at a young age, we are an island nation after all. It’s a great source of general knowledge for children to understand the lifecycle of fish like salmon and also muscles and oysters, i’m sure very few teachers nevermind pupils understand the lifecycles. The video on nutrition is particularly important, highlighting to children once gain the need for vitamins and minerals and the abundance that is contained in seafood. The impact on communities is a great video especially for children who don’t live by the sea, they may have little or no knowledge of the importance of employment in all sorts of sectors from the farmers and cleaners, food processors and fish merchants as well as restaurants.
Leading on from this as many people don’t realise the effort it takes to get from the sea to the plate, i thought BIM social project involving the chefs was very interesting and worthwhile. You could see how enthusiastic the trainees were at getting a hands on feel and knowledge of the production of the raw materials.
Getting all this knowledge into children as young as possible has the benefit of helping them to make good food choices, opening them to the possibliity of jobs in the various sectors later in life and also showing them the importance of looking after our seas and environment.
