Inside Education A+ FOr Energy
2020/21 - Net Zero Living - Space Colony Style
Space is often the “spark” that gets people excited about solving problems and designing solutions to carry us into the future. As educators we want to use space as the catalyst driving energy literacy and innovations that will ultimately benefit life on this planet first.
Through two previous A+ for Energy projects our students have gained an appreciation for limited energy resources and have been empowered to make small changes. We have grown space gardens, coded automated plant care systems with Micro:bits, and attempted to quantify energy use to develop awareness and alternative energy sources.
This project takes these ideas to the next level with the design of a net-zero space colony in the hopes that the knowledge and understanding gained will bring an even greater appreciation for the need - and ability - to do this here on our home planet. Through two intertwined phases of the project, students from two schools will determine energy requirements for daily living, test various methods for offsetting their energy needs and design systems to optimize their energy use.
See the student outline for Sci 7 and Sci 9
2019/20 - Bringing the “Green” into Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Inside Education A+ For Energy
In this next phase of our sustainability through space exploration project, students will take the lead in researching, designing and exploring different methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They will measure the power used by the systems they design and, by extrapolating experimental data, calculate the amount of CO2 and methane that would be given off, quantifying the carbon emission decrease. Based on their results students will draw conclusions about best practices that can be undertaken in our lives to reduce our carbon footprint through the decrease and reclamation of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.
Some possibilities include:
Hydroponic vs traditional agriculture
Solar power vs battery power
Other alternative energy sources (wind, biofuel, hydro)
Removing emissions - catalytic converters, CO2 scrubbers, etc.
Rechargeable batteries vs non-rechargeable batteries
Programming timed lighting systems
Mixing biofuel and fossil fuels into effective ratios
Full-spectrum LED vs Magenta LED lights in greenhouse/hydroponic growth systems
Compost/vermiculture systems
Waste reduction incentives
2018/2019 - Energy Efficient Space Gardens
Welcome to Mars! Conserving Energy on the Red Planet
What happens to our views on energy when we try to settle a completely uninhabited place like Mars or the Moon? Our students will be planning a human settlement on Mars and determining how they can both supply and conserve energy for their new civilization using alternative energy sources and programmable energy management and plant care systems.
See more about it here!
