Combining two technologies - recirculating aquaculture systems and hydroponics - in a closed-loop system, aquaponics offers an opportunity to produce food in an economically and environmentally sustainable way, with crops being grown using a low level of resource input. Aquaponic systems can be used for growing food in urban locations, and could therefore also help to reduce carbon emissions from food production, and through shortening of supply chains have the potential to improve food security and food systems resilience. However, in order for aquaponics to develop its potential in Europe, it needs an appropriately trained workforce. OBJECTIVES: AQU@TEACH will develop and implement a unique multidisciplinary blended learning curriculum for HE education. The curriculum will enable students to acquire expert knowledge and skills, as well as entrepreneurial and transversal skills highly valued by employers, thereby providing them with a competitive advantage on the labour market. The curriculum will be implemented using innovative didactic techniques, which will improve the teaching skills of the HE teachers. PARTICIPANTS: The AQU@TEACH consortium comprises five partners from four countries (SI, CH, ES, UK). High international quality and a proven track record of successful cooperation between the partners will ensure the quality and sustainability of the project results. ACTIVITIES: In line with the trend of integrating economics into study programmes, the students will attend a summer school combining aquaponics expertise with entrepreneurial skills. During autonomous research projects they will develop critical thinking and analysis skills. The progress of the individual students will be monitored through instructional scaffolding and presented in an e-portfolio. Aquaponics will also be disseminated to interested individuals and key policy makers in national multiplier events. METHODOLOGY: AQU@TEACH will expand the focus beyond aquaponics engineering expertise to include the development of transversal skills. This requires the implementation of instructional scaffolding and innovative didactic methods embedded into blended learning with interactive didactic tools. AQU@TEACH will provide comprehensive didactic guidelines and recommendations for the teaching process. The quality of the curriculum and its implementation will be validated through internal and external evaluation. The curriculum will be valued using the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). EXPECTED RESULTS: AQU@TEACH will address the needs of HE teachers, HE learners, and other stakeholders by producing a range of outputs, including a toolbox of innovative didactic techniques, the aquaponics curriculum, an entrepreneurial skills curriculum, interactive online courses, examples of good teaching practices, and e-portfolios and research reports by students. The outputs will increase the formal knowledge and employability of the HE students, the skills and employability of HE teachers, and the informal knowledge of other stakeholders. The project will also increase the networking and international mobility of staff and students from the partner institutions. IMPACT: AQU@TEACH will have considerable medium- and long-term impacts. It will establish a learning culture where HE students: (i) acquire the skills necessary to conduct research and show independence in learning, (ii) acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding of aquaponic processes and engineering, (iii) develop transversal skills: understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication, (iv) work effectively in collaboration with others and in teams, (v) creatively explore new (entrepreneurial) roles, ideas and strategies. The partners will actively encourage colleagues at other HE institutions in Europe to use the curriculum and the intellectual outputs, and will use e-platforms such as Scientix and Science in School in order to promote awareness of relevance of the curriculum to STEM subjects at secondary schools. The Open Access interactive online course will be freely available to anyone, worldwide.
In 'Ten technologies which could change our lives' (European Parliamentary Research Service 2015), aquaponics was singled out as a solution for developing innovative and sustainable food sources for Europe. Combining two technologies - recirculating aquaculture systems and hydroponics - in a closed-loop system, aquaponics is a sustainable food production technology which requires a low level of resource input, since the plants receive their nutrients from the fish water. As a soilless cultivation method, aquaponic systems can be used for growing food in cities, and thus could help to reduce carbon emissions and improve food security and the resilience of urban food systems by shortening supply chains. However, in order for aquaponics to develop its potential in Europe, it needs an appropriately trained workforce. The Aqu@teach project aimed to address that need, by developing the first ever aquaponics curriculum specifically for higher education students. Aquaponic food production is complex and requires a broad spectrum of knowledge – aquaculture, horticulture, chemistry, biology, food safety, engineering – in order to understand and manage the processes involved. The project is a showcase for best practice in online and blended learning curriculum design. The multidisciplinary curriculum has been designed to equip students with expert knowledge and skills, as well as digital, entrepreneurial and transferable skills. The e-learning course was developed in collaboration by the University of Greenwich (UK), the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH), the Technical University of Madrid (ES), the University of Ljubljana and the Biotechnical Center Naklo (SI). Given the multidisciplinary nature of aquaponics, it can be taught as an optional module in a wide variety of different degree courses, including agriculture, agronomy, horticulture, aquaculture, and ecological engineering. Indeed, catering for the variety of backgrounds of the potential students was one of the greatest challenges that the partnership faced when developing Aqu@teach. It can be taught either using blended learning – combining digital media and the Internet with classroom formats that require the physical co-presence of the teacher and students – or as an instructor-led, cohort-based e-learning course. It consists of a fifteen module Aquaponics Curriculum (5 ECTS) and a supplementary Entrepreneurial Skills module (2 ECTS). All the modules were designed using a Toolbox of Innovative Didactic Practices intended to encourage a mixture of student dialogue and collaboration, autonomy, critical thinking, and creativity. The Aquapaonics Curriculum was pilot tested at each of the five partner institutions, with students studying very different disciplines: landscape architecture (Greenwich), agricultural engineering (Madrid), natural resource sciences (Zurich), sanitary engineering (Ljubljana) and horticulture (Naklo). The pilot run was evaluated on the basis of comprehensive student feedback on each individual module and on the various teaching and learning methods used, and self-evaluation by the tutors. The lessons learnt were then developed into the Teaching Aquaponics: Best Practice Guide which provides instructors with fresh ideas for achieving the best educational results when teaching an interdisciplinary subject which requires high-quality knowledge in diverse fields as well as the specifics of interdisciplinary integration. The supplementary Entrepreneurial Skills curriculum was developed and taught during a summer school in Slovenia with students from the four countries participating in the project, and has subsequently been converted into an e-learning module. It builds on the knowledge which students will have gained through completing the Aquaponics Curriculum, and introduces the main processes involved in developing a business idea into a start-up company – business models, customer segmentation, value proposition, marketing and pricing, and financing. As well as gaining high level knowledge and specific professional competences in the field of aquaponics, the participating students developed transferable skills which should provide them with a competitive advantage in the labour market. Arguably the greatest impact so far has been on the teachers, as a result of the numerous opportunities that the project afforded for continuous professional development. The transnational and multidisciplinary nature of the partnership exposed them to new ways of thinking about their pedagogic practice, and the nature of the project itself enhanced their digital and entrepreneurial skills. The dissemination of the outputs will encourage the widespread adoption of Aqu@teach by HE institutions across Europe, which in turn will facilitate the development and expansion of aquaponics as a sustainable food production technology.