STEAM - Growing Curious with Aquagardening

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 20

       Our students are very excited about this grant, and recent addition of this aquaculture kit to our classroom. Each class named the beta fish living inside this classroom kit, and this kit is also utilized for calming techniques during the writing process, as students with exceptionalities sometimes have anxiety when writing. This kit connects students to the observation techniques used in writing a narrative paragraph about how the fish is eating, surviving, and thriving in the tank. Students also read articles about aquaculture, and wrote responses in interactive reading and writing notebooks.

      The plants inside created some fog to the water below, and students are learning through trial and error, how to care for the fish, while maintaining the ph and algae levels of the water. The science behind the auquaculture kit provides an excellent learning opportunity for middle grade students to hypothosize, and then see, and record results together in class. One student even brought in treats for the fish, which included dried grubs, and various dried insects with a small spoon. He also presented his techniques for caring for the fish, and it opened doors to communication in students who sometimes have difficulties expressing themselves.

        Students are also highly motivated to stay on-task during learning activities in order to be involved in feeding the fish when they completed with the lesson. The kit is moved around the classroom in order for students to see the fish as they are writing, or working on classwork.

Number of Students benifitting from project thus far: 20

Improvement in Engagement in learning activities, and class participation: 95% of students demonstrated more engagement in learning.

Improvement in observation techniques, and written responses: 92% of students demonstrated higher level thinking skills as they observed this class aquaculture kit.

Increase in participation in collaboration/team work in each class period: 80% of students began to collaborate together to take care of the daily feeding of fish, and cleaning of tank.

Expanded level of verbal communication in students with disabilities in class: 90% improvement in language skills and verbal communication.

Successful demonstration of writing in notebooks in class: Students were successful in writing and documenting the changes in the tank over time.

 Thank you very much to the Perna-Rose Foundation for making this grant possible. Our students and I are very grateful for the opportunity to learn more about beta fish, aqualculture, science, and writing about the daily changes of this kit.