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In
August 1997, NETEP received a three- year grant from the National Science Foundation Advanced
Technological Education (ATE) program for the New England Aquaculture Educators
Network, AQUA. The project prepared middle and high school teachers and
two-and four-year college and university faculty to introduce aquaculture
curricula into existing programs. A key component of this project was that
participants formed "Alliances" composed of the above mentioned
educators at multiple educational levels so that curricula will be coordinated to create pathways for
students.
AQUA started with a two-day introductory workshop on November 7-8, 1997.
Seventy-five educators attended the workshop held at the Massachusetts Maritime
Academy in Bourne, Mass. Participants attended presentations by local, regional
and national aquaculture experts, made site visits to Cliftex, an urban
aquaculture business, the aquaculture program at the Greater New Bedford Regional
Vocational Technical High School and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Participants also met in state breakout sessions to develop plans for each state's
aquaculture educators' networks.
Summer 1998 Workshops
In July 1998, over 50 participants from 47 New England educational
institutions received training during two week-long workshops focusing
on either marine aquaculture or freshwater recirculating systems. The
one-week marine aquaculture workshop was held at the Bridgeport
Regional Vocational Aquaculture School in Bridgeport, Conn. The
freshwater workshop was held at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. The
participants were selected from more than 60 applicants who
participated in the two-day workshop in November 1997.
Participants received a choice of one of three laboratory equipment options in order to
introduce aquaculture in the classroom. Half of the cost of the equipment was
provided through the NSF grant and half was matched by the participants' home
institutions. Technical assistance was provided by the AQUA aquaculture
specialists to help install the equipment and to provide guidance in curriculum
implementation.
AQUA Team
Principal Investigator:
Lance Stewart
Associate Extension
Professor
University of Connecticut
Co-Principal Investigators:
Fenna Hanes
Senior Director, Office of Programs
New
England Board of Higher Education
Ann Whitney
Acting Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs
Bristol Community College
Aquaculture Specialists:
Joseph Buttner
Assistant Professor
Salem
State College
Dale Leavitt
Assistant Professor
Roger Williams University
Scott Soares
Aquaculture Coordinator
Mass. Dept. of Food & Agriculture
Other aquaculture resources on the web:
The Aquaculture Network Information Center: aquanic.org
Northeast Regional Aquaculture Center (NRAC): www.umass.edu/specialprograms/nrac/
Delaware Aquaculture Resource Center: darc.cms.udel.edu
Aquatic Network: www.aquanet.com
Computer Software for Aquaculture:
www.biosys.bre.orst.edu/aquacult/aquasoft.htm
Sea Grant - Educational Resources: www.mdsg.edu/NSGO/research/aquaculture/index/html
Regional Aquaculture Centers: aqua.ucdavis.edu/organizations/centers.regional.html
Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE): www.marinetech.org
Aquaculture Instructional Resources
RASCALs -- Recirculating Aquaculture Set-up and Chronology Assistance
Letters
This set of 15 technical assistance letters describe the
sequence of steps necessary to introduce an aquaculture program employing
recirculating system technology in a classroom environment and address the basic
questions associated with the development of small-scale aquaculture systems for
educational institutions, RASCALs is designed to assist middle, secondary and
postsecondary educators set up a recirculating aquatic animal culture system and
implement an aquaculture program in the classroom.
Topics include: Siting and
Planning; Permitting (New England region); Recirculating System Components;
System Set-up and Conditioning; Fish Biology; Getting Fish and Stocking; System
Maintenance; Water Quality Monitoring and Management; Feeding; Waste Management
and Cleaning; Record Keeping; Sampling, Growth Rates and Food Conversion
Efficiency; Disease Diagnosis and Treatment; Grading and Harvesting; and
Disposition of Fish. Additionally, the guide leads off with an essay, "Problem
Based Learning and Aquaculture Education," which describes, from a pedagogical
view, the benefits of implementing aquaculture in the classroom. These materials
were developed by Project AQUA through a grant (DUE#9752050) to the New England
Board of Higher Education from the Advanced Technological Education program of
the National Science Foundation.
You can download the following samples as PDF files:
Publication Cost: $25 (price includes shipping & handling)
Available now from:
New England Board of Higher Education
45 Temple Place
Boston, MA 02111
To order a copy, please send an email to aqua@nebhe.org.
The Aquaculture Curricula
Resource Guide reviews 13 commercially available aquaculture curricula. Each
curriculum is evaluated numerically according to Coverage and Quality,
Organization and Structure, Format and Readability, Assessment, and Teacher
Resources.
Aquaculture Curricula Profiles in the findings section of the
publication provide one page review summaries for each of the curricula that were
evaluated. The summaries provide a thumbnail reference to the numeric values for
each of the 5 evaluation categories as well as comments that provided greater
details about each curriculum.
Included in the appendixes are: information
on the aquaculture curricula evaluated as well as additional aquaculture
education material identified, but not evaluated in the Guide, including
author/editor, title, publisher, cost, and, if applicable, ISBN number; survey
instrument and evaluation worksheet; plus data on individual assessments for each
curriculum reviewed. Aquaculture materials surveyed by this Aquaculture Curricula
Resource Guide are not exhaustive of what is available. Aquaculture is a dynamic
and rapidly growing discipline with new findings and publications generated
continuously. We encourage educators to share with us new materials that they
discover so the guide can be updated and remain a useful teaching aide. The Guide
was produced with partial support from the USDA Northeastern Regional Aquaculture
Center and the Advanced Technological Education program of the National Science
Foundation.
There is no charge for this publication.
The guide is available online at www.state.ma.us/dfa/aquaculture/education_curricula.pdf.
It is also available
from:
New England Board of Higher Education
Attention: Fenna Hanes, Director, NETEP
45 Temple
Place
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: 671-357-9620 Fax: 617-338-1588
Mass. Dept. of Food & Agriculture
Attention: Scott Soares
251 Causeway
Street
Boston, MA 02114
Ph: 617-626-1730
Fax: 626-1850
Explorations in Aquaculture (two volumes)
Volume I: Marine Resources for the
Classroom
This collection of 12 explorations is designed to assist
middle, secondary and postsecondary educators in introducing marine aquaculture
into the classroom and in teaching the required science and mathematics. Each
exploration includes an introduction, background, materials, lab safety,
procedure, analysis, further reading and notes section. In addition, each
exploration will be aligned with National Science, Math and Language Arts
Standards to assist teachers in planning and meeting standards requirements.
Explorations include the following topics: Setting up Saltwater Aquaria;
Single-Species Marine Microalgal Culture: The Milford Method; Wells-Glancy Marine
Microalgal Culture; Monitoring Marine Microalgal Cell Density; Bivalve Anatomy;
Bivalve Shell Morphometry; Bivalve Feeding; Bivalve Spawning and Fertilization;
Sea Urchin Spawning and Fertilization; Culturing Brine Shrimp; An Airlift
Upweller Shellfish Nursery System; Measuring the Salt Content of Seawater;
Dissolved Oxygen in the Marine Environment.
The curriculum also includes
supplemental resources, a section on safety, and a section on assessment. This
series of instructional resources emphasizes a variety of science and mathematics
principles using marine aquaculture as a teaching tool. These materials were
developed by Project AQUA through a grant (DUE#9752050) to the New England Board
of Higher Education from the Advanced Technological Education program of the
National Science Foundation.
You can view the following samples as PDF files:
Volume II: Freshwater Resources for the Classroom
This set of 14 explorations is designed to assist middle, secondary
and postsecondary educators introduce a recirculating aquatic animal
culture system into the classroom by teaching the required science and
mathematics. Each exploration includes an introduction, background,
materials, lab safety, procedure, analysis, further reading and notes
section. In addition, each exploration will be aligned with National
Science, Math and Language Arts standards to assist teachers in
planning and meeting standards requirements.
Explorations include the following topics: Water Quality monitoring;
Dissolved Oxygen in Recirculating Systems; The Nitrogen Cycle: Nitrogen
in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems; Transformation of Nitrogenous
Wastes; Measuring Temperatures; Water Quality Management: pH; Water
Quality Management: Alkalinity & Hardness; Photosynthesis and
Respiration; Fish Morphology: Structure and Function; Fish Physiology:
Osmoregulation; Fish and Hypoxia; Culturing Brine Shrimp; Feeds and
Feeding; Fish Handling; Fish Weighing and Measuring; Fish Treatment:
Redox Reactions to Control Parasites.
The curriculum also includes supplemental resources, a section on
safety, and a section on assessment. This series of instructional
resources emphasizes a variety of science and mathematics principles
using marine aquaculture as a teaching tool. These materials were
developed by Project AQUA through a grant (DUE#9752050) to the New
England Board of Higher Education from the Advanced Technological
Education program of the National Science Foundation.
You can view the following samples as PDF files:
Publication Cost: $19.95 per volume, $39.95 for both volumes (CD-ROM set)
Available now from:
Carolina Biological Supply Co.
2700 York Road
Burlington, NC 27215-3398
Phone 800-334-5551 Fax 800-222-7122
To order a copy, please visit www.carolina.com.
For more information, contact:
Fenna Hanes, Senior Director, Office of Programs
NEBHE, 45 Temple Place
Boston, MA 02111, 617.357.9620
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