Geographical Association

Fancy some fish and chips?

Fish is often referred to as 'brain food'. This particular unit has a focus on fish as a food source, but links to the issue of the gradual decline in fish stocks around the world, sustainability in general and the use of measures to overcome some of these issues. We hope it helps your brain on its learning journey. Perhaps it's also no coincidence that fish travel in schools...

This unit starts with a focus on the exploration of an idea called the 'tragedy of the commons’ and explores how the idea might form the basis for an examination of the idea of sustainability, and be used with students. It will also allow you to consider some elements of the TLA criteria as they relate to your chosen food focus.

Completion of this course is intended to be a CPD activity, rather than a 'resource grab'. You are encouraged to adapt the ideas presented here to develop your own resources or unit of work. The intention is that completion of the unit will result in the development of new skills and pedagogical techniques, and offer opportunities for reflection.

If you are working through this course as part of a TLA learning journey at Stage One or Two it will be assumed that you have already completed Getting Started, where you will have decided upon a learning and change focus for your journey. Completing this course should enable you to refine this focus. As you work through this course keep referring to section two of the learning journal,
in which you create an action plan for your
learning journey.

View TLA Stage One Writing Frame
View TLA Stage Two Writing Frame

Here is one definition of sustainability:

"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs."

Before starting the unit, think of some of the actions that you, or your students undertake on a daily basis which, by this definition, are probably 'unsustainable'.

How unsustainable are your food choices?

At the time of writing, Britain's food policy is a topic of debate on the BBC's Have Your Say website. This contains a range of comments that might be useful for teachers when generating discussion points.

We are now going to focus on the world's oceans. The majority of the Earth's surface is covered with water. At first glance, it might seem that it is far too big for human activity to have any sort of impact, but it has become increasingly clear over the last decade that our actions are indeed having an impact on marine ecosystems. Warning signs include coral bleaching and algae blooms in the Mediterranean.

Read the following article from The Independent as a stimulus for the activity to follow. This article refers to the 'Great Pacific garbage patch':

The world's rubbish dump: a tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan

Taras Grescoe's book Bottomfeeder was first published in 2008. It contains a range of case studies of fish species, and would make a very good additional resource for those wanting an interesting read, as well as a useful classroom resource. Some associated resources can be found on the accompanying website.

The idea of the 'Tragedy of the Commons' was introduced by the biologist Garrett Hardin, in an article published in the journal Science in 1968.

The article described a 'dilemma' where multiple individuals acting independently in their own self-interest can ultimately destroy a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long term interest for this to happen. The original article used the example of cows being grazed on an area of common land. Hardin suggested that it would be in the interests of each farmer to graze as many cattle as possible, but that this would ultimately lead to the degradation of the shared resource over time.

The dilemma has been used to explore the damage caused to commercial salmon fisheries in the rivers of British Columbia, but could now extend to other environmental contexts.

Although the areas of sea most close to countries are claimed as territorial waters, the world's oceans could nevertheless be said to be the largest of all the world's 'commons',

View the full text of Hardin's article.

Take a good look at the article (or a summary), and think about how you would introduce the idea of the 'Tragedy of the Commons' to a group of students of an age group appropriate to your chosen learning journey.

This could take the form of:

• a summary text
• a short sequence of PowerPoint slides
• a Prezi document
• a series of bullet points
• a dialogue between two people: where one person is trying to explain to the other

You might also find it useful to play the Tragedy of the Bunnies game, which offers a cartoon-style exploration of some of the issues involved.

Food labelling is one area that has been developed in recent years, as a response to consumer demand. The Marine Stewardship Council is one organisation that has introduced a labelling code.

Think about how you might use food labels as a resource in the classroom. This might include a design task for a food item of your choice.

Rebranding is an area which is being introduced into several of the new schemes of work for 'A' level.

Read this Daily Telegraph article: Pollack rebranded as Colin by Sainbury's.

You could also listen to this mp3 file from The Guardian. It's possible to download the mp3 file from this link, but you may prefer to listen to it and make notes as you go along. 

Why do you think that supermarkets felt the need to rebrand the fish? How else might consumers be persuaded to change to a more 'sustainable' choice of fish?

As an extension, why not explore the issues surrounding one particular type of seafood. There have been several articles about the decline in certain species.

Some possibilities:

• Cod – this has been the subject of an excellent book by Mark Kurlansky called Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World.

• Tuna – 'blue-fin' in particular is under threat as a result of very high prices driven by demand for sashimi in Japan

A list of endangered fish species has been published on Greenpeace's Red List.

Discuss with your year group partner(s) and / or mentor what ideas you might develop and how you will do this.

• How have these examples and ideas help you to plan coherent and relevant learning for your pupils?
• How did you adapt them?
• What curriculum links did you focus on to link with the geography? Why did you choose them?
• How have you enabled pupils to make connections between the local and the global?
• How did you place value pupils' contributions and personal geographies? How did this impact on their self esteem and the value they place on themselves as individuals and as a group?
• How do you think these activities contribute to your pupils' understanding of the issues around food and sustainability.

On your learning journey

• What changes, if any did you make to your original plan? How did professional learning conversations with your coach or learning mentor influence this and the outcomes of your learning?
• How did you evaluate your own learning?
• What feedback did you receive from pupils or colleagues?
• How did you share this learning with others? What feedback have you had?

You may now wish to move on to another course in this family in order to widen and deepen your knowledge base. The courses explore a range of supporting areas and can be completed in any order you wish. You may wish to take a quick look at them before going any further.

It is important that you end by completing the Plenary section, as this allows you to reflect on your learning and fill in part three of the TLA writing frame (and part four if you are working towards Stage Two verification).

Main Image: Image by Flickr user GloomyCorp, made available under Creative Commons