Hi Marie,

I replied and it didn't "stick" so I'm going to give it another go and hope this one stays around!

We talked quite a bit about students presenting their designs to stakeholders, but the pandemic made it hard to coordinate this and, since this was our first run through of the unit, we also weren't sure how far the students would make it through the design and build. Instead, the students held a showcase in their media center and invited parents in to see their designs and comment. We did have undergraduate architectural studies students in their intro class come and support design and build days (they were such a wonderful support)! In our next phase of the project, we are working towards community involvement in which students tour their communities and think about how the sustainable design works with the community. We also plan for students to present their ideas to stake holder community members and get project feedback. 

Thank you for visiting! I am looking forward to viewing your project too!

Marie -- Great question! We have been finding that this work has so many tendrils out toward workforce development and future advocacy for green community development. One challenge of our unit is that our first pilot took 10 weeks of instruction, which was beyond what most teachers can devote to the subject. We are working to streamline the unit, but I can imagine creating an add-on activity for teachers at the end of the unit that involves school administrators, architects, city hall staff, etc. in the final presentations. Something like that would take significant coordination for teachers, but could certainly enhance the place-based nature of the unit. Thanks again for visiting. -Laura

Hi Brooke,

Thank you for watching! We are in the midst of data analysis now and are thinking about our next iteration of unit implementation in the fall and spring of next school year. We are excited to streamline the unit and better integrate engineering throughout the unit.

Thank you for your interest in our project!

-Laura

Brian -- Thanks for this comment and seeing the potential and importance of this work! Laura

Hi Billy -- Love these questions. I am one of the investigators on the project and my work addresses the idea of "green building literacy." ENCORE Learning Lab is the group that is focusing on curriculum project. We are focusing on energy in this project, but we are interested broadly in the ways in which green building design provides exciting content for the science classroom. As an example, we simultaneously developed a green roof unit that focuses on the water cycle. We would love to keep expanding outward with these ideas.

Our assessment of the unit currently focuses on student conceptual energy knowledge -- where we are looking at the ability for students to understand the components within the system, how these components are linked, and why it matters. We have student surveys, drawings, and writings as the data. We hope that this is the foundation for the energy behaviors you mention above, which have not been the focus of our assessments, even though these are potential outcomes of a unit that focuses on energy efficient design features!

Thanks so much for watching.

Laura

Hi Beatriz --

Fabulous question. The learning content within the unit does not directly address these questions at this time, but social justice ideas have shaped some of our decisions around unit design. The idea is for this unit to be open access and place-based, and we hope that teachers in many different communities can pick up the unit and weave it into their local school and community context. We also made sure that schools did not need to have access to a certified green building to enact the unit. The lessons work in all school building regardless of how eco-friendly - or not - the building is. Further, when students are designing their one-room schoolhouse in the engineering design lesson, they are given several constraints. Budget is one of those constraints. The worksheets prompt students to calculate construction cost, which would give educators an excellent opening to discuss who does and does not have access to green building practices.

I would love to hear more of your ideas that we could consider for unit improvement!

Laura C.

Hi Emily!

We have wrestled with engineering + science too. I attended a webinar about it and it seems like everyone is struggling with this point. In our next iteration of the unit for next school year, we are starting with engineering and then placing engineering throughout the unit as one of our graduate students is thinking deeply about the overlap between systems thinking and design thinking. Since we are trying to support systems thinking, and do science and engineering, we think this approach might better help us integrate the two in a much more thoughtful approach. 

-Laura

Hi Dr. DeWaters,

We’re so happy that you enjoyed what we’re doing. Thanks for your heartwarming feedback.   

Thank you for stopping by! I love that overlap! In our next iteration, we working to integrate the engineering design into the community. Students will meet with and tour their communities to consider sustainable buildings and present their ideas to community members for feedback.