Hong Kong Education City SEN Aquaponics Pack — STEM + Life Education for Students with Disabilities

Summary

This SEN-specialized teaching resource pack, hosted on the EDB-associated Hong Kong Education City platform, documents a 10-session, 16-hour workshop series ("守護小天使" / Guardian Angels) run from November 2017 to January 2018. It uses aquaponics to teach water chemistry (temperature, pH, ammonia), plant biology, and fish care to secondary students with disabilities, deliberately coupling STEM content with life education on loss and care. The pack includes pre/post assessments (86–92% average scores reported), pictorial teaching materials, and experiment protocols. The pedagogy is picture-based and demonstration-first, with hands-on rotation duties decomposing aquaponics upkeep into role-based tasks. It is an exceptionally well-scaffolded entry point for new learners and a rare documented case of aquaponics for accessibility, relevant to inclusive-education policy and UN CRPD-aligned practice. Beyond special education, the role-based task rotation is a template for community workshops with mixed-ability groups.

Guiding Principles

• STEM Integration — inclusive STEM: water chemistry, plant biology, and fish care taught through a working aquaponics system.
• Youth Empowerment — experiential learning and life education (respect and appreciation of life) built around rotating hands-on responsibilities for students with disabilities.

Learning Outcomes & Transferable Skills

Learners gain Water Chemistry (temperature, pH, ammonia testing), Biology (plant biology and fish care), Systems Thinking (the coupled fish-plant ecosystem), and Sustainability Literacy through the life-education framing. For educators, the pack demonstrates measurable learning-outcome assessment design (pre/post assessments with rubrics) and shows how to decompose system upkeep into rotating role-based tasks — a transferable workshop-design pattern.

How to Replicate or Build On It

1. Download the resource pack PDF (primary source below) for the full 10-session plan, pictorial worksheets, and experiment protocols.
2. Set up a small classroom aquaponics system with water test kits.
3. Adopt the picture-based worksheets, simple question formats, and hands-on rotation duties for mixed-ability groups.
4. Reuse the included assessment rubrics for pre/post evaluation, adapting the 16-hour structure to your timetable.

Considerations & Constraints

• Cost: Low-moderate — a small-scale system plus water test kits.
• Skill Level: Accessible to SEN learners by design; pictorial, demonstration-first pedagogy.
• Space/Climate: Small classroom system; indoor.
• Tools Required: A small aquaponics setup, water test kits, and the printed pictorial materials.
• Ongoing Maintenance: Moderate — living fish and plants require daily care, structured here as rotating role-based duties.
• Access Barriers: The resource is in Traditional Chinese with no documented translation; hosted as a PDF on the Hong Kong Education City platform.

Prerequisites

None for learners — the pack is scaffolded for students with no prior science background. Facilitators need only basic aquaponics setup skills.

Primary Source

https://www.hkedcity.net/cms_files/cms-sen/1-1000/1a20fda850afc593cc214133709f2660802/C1%20Ms%20Carmen%20WONG.pdf (Ms Carmen Wong workshop pack, Hong Kong Education City SEN resources, Traditional Chinese)