Hong Kong STEAM Aquaponics Teaching Materials — IoT-Connected Interdisciplinary Curriculum (Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School)

Summary

Teachers Wong Ka-wai (黄嘉伟) and Kong Man-kei (江文其) of Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School (乐善堂余近卿中学), Hong Kong, developed a comprehensive set of aquaponics technology teaching materials to fill the gap in up-to-date technology-education textbooks and to strengthen interdisciplinary STEAM learning. Documented in a GCCCE 2025 conference paper, the curriculum has students gain engineering practice by building fish tanks and planters with tools such as laser cutters, apply mathematics for precision and functionality in the design process, and — as the technical core — integrate sensors and servos to construct automated, IoT-connected aquaponics systems. Students then use data analysis to explore how environmental changes such as water temperature and light affect the ecosystem. The materials were positively received by teachers and students, align with the STEAM curriculum framework, and the authors state they will be revised and submitted to Hong Kong's Quality Education Fund as open-source educational resources, as well as shared with mainland educators at the Learning and Teaching Expo. Future plans include video and e-learning materials to support blended learning and BYOD policies.

Guiding Principles

STEM Integration — the project explicitly integrates biology, botany, engineering, mathematics, and technology into one aquaponics build, which the authors present as a model for interdisciplinary STEAM curriculum integration.
Open Source — the materials are intended for submission to the Quality Education Fund as open-source educational resources and for cross-border sharing with mainland China educators.
Transferable Skills — laser cutting, sensor integration, servo control, and environmental data analysis all transfer directly to other engineering and computing contexts.

Learning Outcomes & Transferable Skills

Learners gain Biology (fish-plant ecosystem dynamics), Electronics (sensors, servos, IoT connectivity), Coding (automation logic), CAD-adjacent fabrication skills (laser-cut tanks and planters), Data Literacy (analyzing water temperature and light effects on the ecosystem), and Systems Thinking (closed-loop ecosystem management). The materials are designed so each discipline's skill is exercised in service of one concrete, working system.

How to Replicate or Build On It

Read the GCCCE 2025 paper (primary source below) for the curriculum rationale, methods, and stakeholder evaluation.
Contact the authors at Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School (emails in the paper) about the open-source release via the Quality Education Fund.
Rebuild the setup independently: laser-cut or 3D-print planters and tank fittings, add microcontroller-driven sensors (temperature, light, water level) and servo actuators, and log data for student analysis.
Complement with the tsinghua-it-textbook-aquaponics for a mainland curriculum-standard framing of the same system concepts.

Considerations & Constraints

Cost: Low-to-moderate hardware cost (microcontroller, sensors, servos, tank, grow bed); laser-cutter access is the biggest capital requirement.
Skill Level: Intermediate — aimed at secondary students with teacher facilitation.
Space/Climate: Indoor classroom system; climate-irrelevant with artificial lighting.
Tools Required: Laser cutter (or 3D printer alternative), microcontroller kit, sensors, servos, fish tank, pump, and grow media.
Ongoing Maintenance: Moderate — a living ecosystem plus electronics needs regular water-quality checks, feeding, and sensor calibration.
Access Barriers: Materials are in Chinese (Traditional Chinese context); the open-source release via the Quality Education Fund is announced but the public download location was not yet identifiable as of 2026-09-12 — track via the authors or QEF. Conference paper is freely downloadable.

Prerequisites

Basic secondary-level science and mathematics. Pairs with tsinghua-it-textbook-aquaponics and is supported by the policy direction in seven-ministry-stem-education-guidelines-2025.

Primary Source

GCCCE 2025 conference paper "科技教育辅助跨学科STEAM课程整合" (Technology Education as a Facilitator for Interdisciplinary Integration of STEAM Curriculum), Wong & Kong, PDF verified live 2026-09-12: https://nlt.gcsce.net/ojs/index.php/GCCCE/article/download/1075/584/613