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Elementary school students are beset by such problems as unduly small class size, fewer learning partners, negative learning attitudes, and poor learning effectiveness. With the action research method, this study aimed to investigate the impact of introducing aquaponics into the nature and life technology course of elementary school students that is lectured in a cross-grade manner on students’ knowledge, skills and attitude toward learning. In addition, this study summarized the difficulties encountered by the researcher in teaching and recorded the professional growth obtained therein. The research subjects of this study were five students in an elementary school in Taoyuan City, including three in the third grade and two in the fourth grade. The whole study lasted 3 months, including 12 lessons totaling 480 minutes for aquaponics. The course content studied contained the four activities, aquaponics system, aquaponics principle, aquaponics DIY, and aquaponics observers. The materials to be collected included interviews, teaching videos, writing about nature and life technology, aquaponics learning tables, aquaponics experience tables, aquaponics record tables, aquaponics tests, aquaponics skill lists, aquaponics attitude scale, and teaching reflection notes. In the end, the following findings were obtained: 1. Students can observe that fish and vegetables share the water in the water circulation system and understand the advantages of aquaponics, what equipment is used in an aquaponics system, and what’s the principle of connecting pipes. 2. Students are able to produce mini aquaponics systems and connecting pipes and grasp how to make planting beds using 3D drawing software and how to take care of fish and vegetables and record observation results. 3. The third- and fourth-grade elementary school students have enhanced learning interest and increased willingness to learn and interact. 4. The absence of assessment over students' previous learning cognition before class reduces the smoothness of the whole teaching process. 5. Cross-grade teaching is beneficial to teachers’ improvement in the knowledge and practical skills relevant to aquaponics improve the integration ability and arrangement ability of curriculum design.
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