Aquaculture as Sustainable Agriculture

The overall goals of the curriculum are to:

  • To increase students' awareness of sustainability issues in the field of aquaculture and agriculture, in general.
  • To promote a balanced, informed attitude toward the potential benefits and concerns of aquaculture practices.
  • To increase students' awareness of and readiness for aquacultural careers.
Intended Audience:
    The activities of this currciulum are geared to students of varying academic abilities in grades 8-12. The activites are appropriate for both urban and rural educational settings.

    Teachers with a good understanding of aquaculture principles and experience culturing aquaculture organisms will find this curriculum most useful. Lessons and laboratory exercises can easily be infused into units on agriscience, agribusiness, environmental science and international agricultural issues.

Key Components of the Curriculum:
    The activities are designed to be interdisciplinary, incorporating science, math, social studies, and language arts subject areas.
    The activities can be integrated with the school-to-work initiative, tech-prep program, and career passport/portfolio preparation for higher education.
    Each unit contains suggestions for further study, reference materials, and evaluation tools.

Abstract:

    Aquaculture as Sustainable Agriculturewas developed for agriscience teachers with experience teaching aquaculture to advanced students with a solid background in basic agriculture and applied science (e.g. biology, environmental science and/or natural resources).

    The materials will be of interest to upper level agriscience and environmental science teachers interested in introducing students to issues pertaining to the 'sustainability' of today's agricultural practices.

    Four units of instruction cover: the sustainability of aquacultural practices around the world; how aquaculture can be both profitable and sustainable; relationships between aquacultural practices and the environment; and approaches to managing resources sustainably.

    This module stimulates thought, discussion and experimentation and provides opportunities for 'hands-on' practical classroom exercises. It also includes many references to literature with the most current information about commercial aquaculture in the U.S. and world wide, the economics of aquaculture, and natural resource issues.