Aqu@teach Erasmus+ Aquaponics Curriculum

Summary

Aqu@teach is the first aquaponics curriculum developed specifically for university students, produced by an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for Higher Education (2017–2020, project 2017-1-UK01-KA203-036663) involving institutions including the University of Greenwich, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), the Technical University of Madrid, and the University of Ljubljana. It comprises a 15-module Aquaponics Curriculum (150 hours of student workload, 5 ECTS) and a supplementary Entrepreneurial Skills module (60 hours, 2 ECTS). It can be taught through blended learning or as an instructor-led, cohort-based e-learning course hosted on Moodle. The full resource set — Moodle course files, aquaponics textbook, module guides for students, curriculum guides for teachers, a "Teaching Aquaponics: Best Practice Guide," and a toolbox of innovative didactic practices — is freely available from the project website under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licenses. Materials exist in English, Spanish, German, and Slovene, and the license explicitly permits adaptation and further translation. The design uses the Learning Designer approach to balance six learning types (acquisition, inquiry, practice, production, discussion, collaboration) and incorporates e-portfolios (Mahara), wikis, and discussion forums.

Guiding Principles

STEM Integration: The multidisciplinary modules connect biology, water chemistry, environmental and ecological engineering, and ICT-supported simulation modeling of system parameters.
Circular Economy: Aquaponics is taught explicitly as an example of closed-loop production systems for energy, water, and waste, giving students advanced skills in circular economy thinking.
Open Source: All courseware, textbooks, and Moodle files are open access under CC BY-NC-SA, free to download, adapt, and redistribute non-commercially.
Transferable Skills: The design goal is professional and transversal skills desired by employers; the supplementary entrepreneurial module walks students from business idea to start-up.

Learning Outcomes & Transferable Skills

Learners gain Systems Thinking by modeling aquaponic systems as coupled fish–plant–microbe loops; Water Chemistry through nutrient and water-balance modules; Biology through fish anatomy, plant physiology, and nitrification; Entrepreneurship through the dedicated 2-ECTS module; and Sustainability Literacy through SDG-oriented framing (the authors link the course to SDG 4 and sustainable food production). Because modules are self-contained, educators can teach all or only selected ones, in blended or fully online formats.

How to Replicate or Build On It

Start at the project website and download the Aquaponics Curriculum for Teachers and the Teaching Aquaponics: Best Practice Guide to understand the pedagogy.
Import the Moodle course package into your own Moodle instance, or assign the free Aquaponics Textbook as reading.
Use the Module Guide for Students and the Toolbox of Innovative Didactic Practices to adapt workshops, wikis, and e-portfolio assessment to your context.
Translate or localize content — the CC BY-NC-SA license explicitly invites translation beyond the existing EN/ES/DE/SL versions.
Credit-alignment: the course maps to 5 ECTS (+2 ECTS entrepreneurial module), which references the European higher-education area and can be situated against the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) levels 5–6.

Considerations & Constraints

Cost: All materials are free; running the practical component requires an aquaponics system and Moodle hosting.
Skill Level: Intermediate; aimed at BSc/MSc level with basic prior biology and agriculture knowledge recommended.
Space/Climate: Classroom plus optional greenhouse or indoor system; climate-agnostic pedagogy.
Tools Required: Moodle (or another LMS), internet access, Mahara or similar e-portfolio tool; basic water test kits for hands-on work.
Ongoing Maintenance: Content is static since project end (2020); educators must update scientific details themselves.
Access Barriers: CC BY-NC-SA prohibits commercial reuse; WordPress project site (not an institutionally hosted repository) is a mild link-rot risk; some modules were simplified after pilot feedback.

Prerequisites

No dedicated prerequisite notes; the authors recommend basic knowledge of biology, horticulture, and aquaculture before starting the 5-ECTS course.

Primary Source

https://aquateach.wordpress.com/ — official project website hosting the open-access Moodle courses, textbooks, module guides, and best-practice guides.