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This module explored the food pyramid, promoting a healthy diet around seafood in particular.
Seafood contains high amounts of Vitamin D, Calcium, Omega-3 oils and Iron.
The the BIM ‘Seafood Nutrition Handbook’, shared on slide 21, is an excellent resource for further exploration and study on the nutritional value of seafood. It gives a breakdown of the vitamins and minerals found in a number of common seafood consumed in Ireland; cod, coley, crab, haddock, hake, herring, king prawn, lemon soul, mackerel, monkfish, muscles, oysters, place, rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon farmed, Atlantic salmon wild, smoked salmon, sardines, scallops, sea bass, swordfish, tuna and whiting.
There are numerous activities that could be carried out with this resource, such as ‘Guess my species’ – Children get print outs of each species nutrition value – raw and grilled. One child must answer yes no or more cognitive questions. Other children ask the questions until they can guess the species of seafood, do you contain copper? Is your protein level higher than 15g per 100g when raw? Etc.
Children could play a Top Trump style game, with one player calling out a nutritional value. All other players must call out the same category with the highest value winning the card. Pupils could make user friendly cards, depending on how much information they decide suitable, using photo editing applications for example these;
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These types of games can seem superficial, however, whilst children are waiting their turn or working out a ‘good question’ they are increasing their awareness of qualities of the food source. This skill of skimming and retaining information is an area where children are lacking in their memory skills, due to their lack of need to retain information, search engines bringing them to direct answers instead of exploring and finding their own conclusions.Vitamin D can be sourced in salmon and other oily fish for example mackerel
Seafood is a natural source of protein. Important for muscle growth and development, and repair. Fish and shellfish are a good source of protein. Although human bodies can produce amino acids there are nine amino acids which it cannot produce and can be found in seafood.
Pupils could design posters or digital presentations highlighting specific nutritional values and linking them to human body development and needs.
Approaching the four lessons covered in the ARC online resource bank as a means of fostering STEM skills I would create stations within my class that would encourage the development of specific skills whilst learning and exploring the concept of Aquaculture.
For example after an initial introductory video from the ARC site, I might allocate a separate species per class group for the children to discuss and explore. Children would create Fact sheets based on their Species to present to the class. One group would focus on the history of Aquaculture, again creating a simple Fact Sheet.
Topics such as The Nutrition of Seafood and Sustainable Seafood offer opportunities for students to explore seafood through taste tests, recipes creations based on the inquiry and analysis of nutritional values, with the support of resources covered in the ARC lessons on these topics
After watching the video under the topic of Aquaculture and the Community this area could be approached with the purpose of creating a possible Aquaculture Community in our own local area, incorporating the streams and bogs. The children would need to apply all STEM skills to obtain an exceptional, fulfilling outcome to this projects, however essential skills needed to undertake the task are
- using their skills and content knowledge to creatively solve problems
- innovating, designing and making
- testing and modifying their solutions to complex problems.
There are excellent quizzes at the end of each lesson created through Google forms as a means of assessment of and for future learning, which pupils can access through a hyperlink QR code or as an assignment through their Google classroom. Teacher or pupils could create their own quizzes based on the lessons, or to support their own mini projects developing their digital learning skills
Our current main focus of SSE is on the Arts. We are currently working between writing and sharing the report and putting the improvement plan into action. It is important at this stage to highlight STEM skills as a means of reaching targets, as with all these subjects innovation, creating, imagining and analysing are key skills needed to enhance learning and reach targets in the arts. Talk and discussion can often be underestimated or found to be ‘noisy’ and ‘unproductive’, however it is amazing when you home in on what is being said and discussed within that ‘noise’
Meeting standards in the Teaching and Learning domains can be met through utilising resources such as the ARC with additional support materials and personnel and explorative learning opportunities. If a school visit from the ARC itself is not possible due to availability, utilising local professionals and specialist to work with the children in school, on location or virtually is another way of engaging the pupils with ‘real-world’ learning as well as the school building and maintain a relationship with the wider community.
Thank you so much for these suggestions,
Already at a glance I see potential for compare and contrast lessons, on what is farmed on each site, but also using CLIL with the title Óir na Farraige as an example of a metaphor in Irish. I think I will have to recommend the children explore the entire Simply Blue site in their own time, as we are surrounded in Turbines here in the bogs of Offaly and Kildare that I can see them being drawn to the off shore windfarms, and I could lose their focus completely. It’s all good learning though !!
I love how easy to navigate and informative the Réalt na Mara ( another metaphor!) is. The photography and images are fabulous too. Thank you for the share
I find the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals a wonderful resource. I would like to have a poster of the 17 Goals in my classroom, so that we can reflect on it throughout the year, and highlight areas where we are making an impact either negatively or positively and draw attention to ways we can improve our practices.
Having grown up in the 1980’s in a rural, pretty self sufficient and relatively sustainable environment, we mended, reused, recycled and produced our own vegetables in the garden. What we couldn’t use ourselves was either passed on to travellers, relatives or recycle centres in nearby towns. We were seen as a little eccentric and ‘weird’ among school friends and even relatives. It is wonderful to see a huge shift in society, that these practices are becoming a norm nationally, such as implementing simple and regular practices of recycling plastics and glass in local recycling banks.
All our local schools and churches run clothing collections to generate an income whilst also promoting sustainability.
The school offers opportunities for Technology Clean-Ups, where we take in old / unusable devices and then bring them to the recycling centre in a nearby town. We are overdue a collection, so I plan to offer a date to families in the coming term.
Having a young teenager, I have become aware of the range of electronics, games and DVDs certain shops trade. With gaming and technologies every growing among young people I will draw attention to such companies, where the children can bring in their unwanted games or devices and trade them for cash or store credit. This facility will help encourage sustainability and appreciate value for money.
Schools have school gardens promoting mental wellbeing as well as teaching children how to grow and prepare edible plants, to promote healthy eating as well as reducing food waste and packing waste when shopping for fruit and veg.
We take our children on a cycle to the local woods where they study the plant life and river life in the tributary that flows to the Boyne River. The children are fascinated with how salmon return here to spawn, and learn to appreciate the importance of keeping our rivers and streams clean and maintained to encourage the return of salmon each year. Yard and local area tidy-ups, pruning , dredging and litter collections are activities the pupils and their families get involved in. When possible the school teams up with members of the Inland Fisheries Ireland to help educate the children on the importance of protecting our waterways.
I think that continuing these practices until they are embedded in the community is very important, and not to necessarily bombard them with something new each year, as they can lose interest, and have less impact overall.
Currently Irelands Aquaculture is based primarily along the western coast of Ireland from the South Cork shoreline to the Northeastern coast of Donegal.
The Atlantic sculptured coastline, along with glacial formations has manipulated our western coast in particular into an idyllic location for various fish, fin and shell and seaweed to be farmed.
Many of these areas are home to longtime descendants of fishermen, and farmers depending on the ocean and it’s resources. In more recent times with the reduction of fish in the sea and the isolation of living habitats making education and social prosperity difficult coastal areas have become more isolated and less populated.
These remote areas are evolving as they harness their natural resources to create jobs, promote tourism through both professional and leisure trips.
The concept of Aquaculture as a means of providing sustainable high quality nutrition as a counter action to the decline in commonly eaten wild seafood is proving to have a much greater positive impact than would be appreciated when first mentioned.
These small rural communities are developing hives of growth, creating jobs and enterprises for example transport, culinary tourism and scientific development and even evolution. As the aquaculture grows so to do the surrounding communities, promoting improved infrastructure, education, social development, the list seems to be endless.
These developments can help entice people to relocate from greater rural areas, relieving pressures caused by overpopulation of towns and suburbs.
Through my oline exploration on this topic I came across a local Connemara Company website, ‘Mungo Murphy’s Seaweed Co.’ which offer a prime example of a community harnessing aquaculture as a means of prosperity. The sight offers information on what the Mungo Murphy farms, fabulous photographs and links to purchase produce as well as book tours.
Another interesting site I came across, that I would expect my pupils to find, or find similar, is that of Kelly’s Oysters, farmers of Clams, Oysters and Mussels. The simple inclusion of News and Recipes on this site highlight another branch of industry that Aquaculture impact – media studies, website design, journalism etc.
In using the Bord Iascaire Mara (BIM) tools and resources from the ARC, which are accessible through the BIM website (https://bim.ie/a-seafood-way-of-life/the-arc/), teachers can introduce pupils to Aquaculture, gain an understanding of its history and experience and audio visual insight into the aquaculture practices and purposes in Ireland, as a progressive and sustainable means of producing food and employment.
Lessons on the site are broken down into subtopics which pupils can explore through talk and discussion, group research and project work. These lessons can be covered over a number of weeks/days or throughout the year, as the teacher may wish to use them as introductory lessons to specific Geography and Science strand Units, but may also be used to explore strand units in SPHE or Maths when looking at citizenship or Analysing Data, but to mention a few possibilities.
As well as introducing or supporting class teaching the videos and adverts in this module can be used as examples of what the teacher expects students to create, as a means of presenting their learning on the topic. Pupils can be expected to create their own documentaries or slideshows based on Aquaculture in Ireland.
Introducing the pupils to the ‘Taste the Atlantic, a Seafood Journey’ https://bim.ie/a-seafood-way-of-life/taste-the-atlantic/ is a wonderful way to entice the pupils to bring their exploration of the Irish coastline and its delicious produce home with them, as they plan family trips or holidays at home. Pupils could use the poster on the webpage as a base to do map hunts – searching for nearby towns and villages using their own atlas or online map tools, distance / methods to travel to destination, plan a trip, pamphlets etc.
Highlighting other BIM initiatives such as the ‘Young Chef Ambassador Program and Next Generation Oyster Farmers also promote social license around Aquaculture, as although my pupils do not live near a coastal area they may have other interests in sciences and culinary fields that can be fed and inspired by these resources.
With many of our pupils coming from agricultural backgrounds learning about aquaculture can help them understand an alternative means of farming and how they can compliment each other, as well as helping Ireland develop its sustainability. They could carry out compare and contrast activities between Agri and Aqua culture, or design initiaves to promote collaboration among ‘fields’!Hi Steven I like the way your school focuses on sustainability at the beginning of the school year and that it is something that they can revisit throughout the year by complying with ideas and protocols they have set up.
I have found that over the past two or three years we have become complacent with some of our practices which I would like to revisit, reintroduce and perhaps get some pupils on board to help monitor and improve our general sustainability within the school for example; how we use paper, the waist we create and how we can reduce our waste as well as monitoring use of water and electricity to encourage reduction.
Overall the children are good to recycle both in school and at home with the local recycling unit being a much used resource. However the reduction of waste and learning skills to repair and maintain such things as electronic devices and old toys can help them embed the importance of sustainability and the protection of the environment.
Hi Emma,
You’re opening paragraph made me a little bit homesick and nostalgic as I was born and raised by the sea on the East Coast and now live in the Midlands. I loved everything to do with the sea from the stony beach to the fresh seafood which we took for granted.
It is so important that we pass on the nutritional values and general health values associated with seafood and seaweeds.
I think inviting a past pupil who is now studying to be a chef, to visit our school and perhaps prepare some seafood for our children to taste, can help them recognise the importance that seafood has, even though they do not live near the ocean or sea, infact especially so. This young chef could let them experience how wonderful and delicious see food can be, with the added impact of opening their mind to alternative careers and interests.
Dolores,
I particularly like your point about
Using Ireland’s Taste the Atlantic map, the school could pick a local aquaculture producer to visit and discuss some direct/indirect jobs that stem from the aquaculture producer, along with their importance in the local community.
In working in a midlands’ school, this is a project which we could do virtually through the use of emailing, video calling and perhaps website building, to research, develop and record learning, which would also link at the developing their digital literacy.
Our children could also make contact with local Inlands Fisheries Ireland branch, to compare and contrast as part of their literacy curriculum.
Absolutely Caroline,
the opportunity of social and economical growth around coastline areas is very important to sustain the abilities for communities to survive in such areas.
Secondary and extended benefits to aquaculture in these areas is the need for infrastructural development, transport of produce and supplies as well as cooks and chefs in the food industry, and general tourists who would travel to and from these fish farms locations. This integration of ‘outsiders’ can be healthy for social networks within these rural areas, not to mention the economic development.
Hi Miriam,
I agree with your recognition of children’s ability to learn the importance of balancing industries like tourism and fishing and with environmental protection.
Have the resources from the ARC is a great support in the classroom to enable children to explore and discuss areas of sea culture, local and global citizenship, and more. These are fantastic resources in the senior classes which link with SESE and SPHE strands.
In working in a Midlands cool I find these invaluable resources to connect my pupils with coastal areas of the country which they are linked with regardless of their geographical location, being from a small Island country.
I look forward to virtually bringing my pupils to the coast.
Just like learning the language of a country in which you are living to ensure a high standard of communication, understanding and enjoyment within that environment, coding is the language used by computers and digital technologies to communicate. Therefore, considering that many children and most adults are using electronic devices with digital technologies daily, I believe it very important that they also learn a language that can ensure the person is leading the machine into the future and not vice versa!!
In facilitating children’s learning of coding from an early age, for example the junior end of primary school, children will begin to develop and appreciate the concept of sending messages to a computer system to decode and respond to.They will begin to develop a ‘Common Sense’ to technologies, and also feel a relevance to their learning, to move away from the more common reaction of “sure why do I need to hold my pencil right, I can just voice type my story?”
I have come across ‘toys’ that give young children opportunities to practise and develop coding skills for example; Beebots and Lego Boost Creative Toolbox, even Vetec Toot-Toot respond to their tracks. I have seen children younger than the recommended age group carry out tasks with these toys with little to no support from the adults in their environment. Children with a specific interest and access to Online forums and portals based around certain video games are developing skills that use coding as they play, to a very high standard. These children are having a substantial advantage over their peers for their future, giving them the opportunity to create the future, whereby children without such skills may only have opportunities to labour..
In not offering children coding from as young as Primary School we are creating a discriminative gap between those who have and those who do not. Similar to not teaching reading – there will be the adult who can listen to a ‘story’, or the adult who can find out for themselves by reading the details. Imagine a teacher who would not teach reading, in a time when there were no machines to read for you!
I have used Lego Mindstorm in Teacher Training College, Scratch Junior, and Scratch in my own time, Lego Boost at home, and Minecraft Education during this course. All of the aforementioned are wonderful ‘Toys’ depending on the child’s abilities or interests. I would not specifically say ‘age’ as these ‘toys’ and games offer opportunity for differentiated learning regardless of the age – within reason.
Time, specific targets for class levels, and patience to explore new practices will be the greatest challenge for teachers to facilitate the learning of coding within the classroom. Having the school use the Digital Strategy Guidelines and carry out SSE on Science Technology and Engineering subjects in their school will help build a foundation on which to develop learning of and with code into the very near future, please God.
Our World – The Square Meal!
Game Based Learning Task using Minecraft Education.
End Game Objective – Decode an unknown food chain by completing in game tasks and retrieving items.
Learning through Play
Create a world that explores and educates players about biodiversity, plant and animal life in Ireland. They will investigate habitats in their local and national environments, source information on species and how they co-exist, and co-depend. Children will incorporate prior knowledge and reflection on previous school years and own experiences.
Teacher will display a WILT board listing particular features that are expected to be explored or met in the world, taken from the planned learning outcomes, to help children set parameters for themselvesBased on the Aistear Framework, workstations can be set up to focus on varied curricular areas, rotated throughout the week / month. This will enable all children to experience the project from different subject perspectives, but with fun and exploratory activities. The teacher can have tasks set at each table to prompt expectations, or children can choose to create their own tasks to later embed into their world, during the Build Station (on Minecraft Ed).
Curriculum Areas Explored, and some activities that will be carried out, outside of Minecraft Ed.
Structured lessons and field trips exploring the following SESE learning outcomes.· Science: Living Things – Plant and Animal Life , Materials, Materials and Change, Environmental Awareness and Care – Environmental Awareness, Caring for my locality/Caring for the environment
· History – Local Studies -Buildings, sites or ruins in my locality, My locality through the ages, Change and Continuity in the Local Environment. ( Food and Farming, Barter Trade and Money)
· Geography – Natural Environments -The Local Natural environment – Become aware of the ways in which people, animals and plants have exploited and/or altered these features
Explorative Maths lessons on;
· Data – surveying, sourcing and analysing data, (Insects per square meter, number of creatures eaten by other creatures, arable farming, crop and vegetable farming in Ireland.
· Number – Sets of Operations and Fractions etc.
· Shape and Space – transformation and spatial awareness
Religious Education – Mystery of the Church/Kingdom – Saints, Early Christian Ireland
Physical Education – Outdoor Adventure Lessons including some or all 4 types of Orienteering – Orienteering (pupils or teacher can choose which if not all of the four learning outcomes they wish to focus on)
During Minecraft World planning and creation.
Measure -find, interpret and deduce measures experimentally with increasing precision.
Data – pose questions, collect, compare, summarise and represent data selectively to answer those questions. critically analyse and evaluate findings; and communicate inferences, conclusions and implications from the findings.
Shape and Space – Spatial Awareness, Transformation, (using coding and commands to assist development)
RE -Saints – Model interactive characters on Saints and personalities associated with wildlife.
PE – Understanding and appreciation of outdoor and adventure activities – incorporate puzzles and tasks in an orienteering style.
Student Roles
Student Roles cards will be set at each station, regardless of what subject area is being covered. This way they will have the thinking caps on for their specialty for the entire week.
The Scientist: Depending on group size or station task content sub scientist cards can be allocated. The children will think, talk and work like a scientist- The Horticulturist,
- Entomologist
- Zoologist
The Building Engineer – Think, Plan, delegate, build (with group members and AI agents) and snag like a builder
The Search Engine –research and source information to support the team.
The Blogger – Documents the World and the tasks as they are being created.
The Mathematician – create puzzles / tasks to solve – they must relate to biodiversity
How can digital tools create engaging and interactive learning experiences?
Digital tools can offer an inclusive and differentiated opportunity for learning and communication of learning to children of diverse abilities. With the use of digital technologies children with differentiated needs have a greater opportunity to engage with lessons enabling teachers to carry out focused teaching moments with others in the classroom that may not always get adequate attention from the teacher and/or more focused interactions with children with regular and frequent needs of support. Having access to, and ability to use ICT tools within the classroom and school environment offers children and teaching staff the opportunity to develop skills in technologies that will take them into the future; gaining experience on troubleshooting, problem solving and adaptation with updating and developing technologies. Game-based learning through digital devices gives children the opportunity to engage in learning in an environment that they find fun and enjoyable and that they can relate to their own lives outside of the classroom. Digital game-based learning also offers teachers opportunity for assessment both in and outside of school hours which can be carried out on individual profiles or as collaborative works projects with the ability to give feedback either in person or digitally, depending on the needs, abilities or interests of the children- in a way they will respond most effectively to.
Apply School Self-Evaluation Guidelines to improve your teaching.
In taking Step 2 – Gathering Evidence,from the SSE Guidelines, a focus on digital learning within our school will be essential to recognizing children’s own previous experience, expectations, understanding and abilities as well as teachers’ individual practices and teachers collaborative practices that are effective and progressive in our current environment. Using technologies to carry out such gathering of evidence in itself can make compiling the results of surveys, questionnaires, interviews and inventory easier to present and analyse. I believe it will be very interesting to compare children’s perceptions of digital technology with that of teachers’ and of course comparing it to parents’ own ideas or understanding as to what digital technology means within primary schools from these findings.
How does developing your use of digital technology impact your school?
Up until recent years developing my own use of digital technologies within my classroom has had a somewhat negative effect on my fellow colleagues, in that they displayed less confidence and optimism towards using technologies in their classrooms, in feeling overwhelmed and disinterested – the flight instead of fight reaction! This also left gaps in children’s use of technologies from class to class making it difficult to progress with particular planning relating to ICT and curricular areas. On completion of this course so far, I am feeling more competent in my awareness and positive attitude towards the implementation of digital technologies within primary schools and I feel responsible to begin a focused and necessary evaluation of digital learning within my school for the development of the pupils today and of course the current teachers who will impact on the future of many children to come.
During the 2023-2026 period, schools have the autonomy to choose the focus of their School Self-Evaluation (SSE). Align your SSE with the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 for best practices.
Offering staff within the primary school to engage in CPD workshops, collaborative group work, peer teaching budding systems etc to help get hands-on experience and eye-opening opportunities of how digital learning within the classroom can enhance and support all areas of the curriculum in a world that our children are growing up in. Developing in and moving forward into the possibilities of the future is imperative. The SSE enables school to choose a focus best suited to their own environment, therefore within my own school I hope to encourage my own colleagues to align the digital strategy for schools with our SSE, gives us the opportunity to upskill and to become motivated to teach old and new topics through new methodologies whilst also embedding lifelong skills in the children that can be incorporated and applied to future technologies, hobbies and career paths.
Use the Digital Strategy to guide decision-making, instruction, and professional development
The digital strategy guide offers fantastic support and guidelines that can for example, be applied during the Gathering Evidence and the Monitoring Actions and Evaluate Impact stages of the SSE Guidelines in particular, when undertaking a school self-evaluation of our digital strategy within our school. The TPACK model. Technological knowledge (TK), Pedagogical knowledge (PK), Content knowledge (CK), offers focused attention on areas that need surveying and responding to when implementing development within our school to ensure we tailor adaptations to our own environment, And not get disheartened by comparing to external bodies would take one step at a time relating to ourselves.Prepare a school project to collect Piseógs/Traditions/Stories of the Night. For
This will be a follow on project from learning about Dark Skys and Light Pollution. There is potential for this to be a whole-school project, engaging the ‘techie’ children in all classes to group together to edit recordings (e.g. snip and enhance volume), artists to illustrate etc.
I will read out an entry from The Schools collection (the Dúchas.ie), containing reference to the night sky.
The following are a few of the signs we associate with the moon. When the moon has a silvery face it foretells frost. When a white ring of mist appears round the moon it is a sure sign of rain. A new moon that is far north when she is first seen is for bad weather. The new moon that is lying on “her” back when she first appears is a sign of good weather. A far off ring round the moon is a near hand storm. A moon that seems to be standing erect in the sky indicates bad weather. Sometimes the moon is hidden underneath clouds; it signifies a great storm of rain. – Star of the Sea, Glengivney, pg 311,312)I will explain that we should compile our own collection of stories relating to the night sky, as we could be one of the last generations to see it with the naked eye.
ICT – teach moment – I will teach them that using a ‘-’ before a word will filter searches not to include that word, if possible. (this will help prevent finding numerous weather stories)
Using Ctrl+f to find words within documents.
As a result of this teaching moment I will read another extract, showing the magnification tool over the original text, and highlighting the digital text on the right.When I was a boy at home my mother had Irish names for many of the stars and groups of stars. The only name I can presently recall is the Dreoilín. This as well as I can remember, was applied to a group of 7 stars which lie very close together and may be seen about 10.30 o’clock any bright star-lit night pretty high up in the south-eastern sky. I am not sure but I think it is the group of stars called the Pleiades. They are so close together and their light blends so, that it is sometimes difficult to say if there are seven or only six in the group. – Cromadh, Croom, Co. Limerick
Allow the children to explore other entries which mention the night sky, teaching children how to search for specific words, or phrases on the web, or in text.
I will share a Google Form for children to compile evidence; stories / poems / phrases etc.
Children can use text or voice typing to fill in their forms.
They can take photos and voice recordings when possible. I will ensure that there is an option to add files to their G-Form responses.Responses can be shared out among the class, using the Google Sheet format of the response, in view only mode, to ensure no changes to the original survey.
Children will transcribe recorded stories, or add a vocal recording to text only stories.
Images can be sourced or drawn to add colour and illustration to evidence.Present records using BookCreator.com
Children will add their text, images and recordings into a shared Book on Book creator. The final book can be shared on the school website, and that of our local Library.
