STEM Building

This New House

Investigate innovations in buildings that help to save energy and protect the environment.

Introduction

Sustainable Home in Minecraft
- - Minecraft world requires download & unzip
  - Explore a home that has been built with sustainable materials.
  - Discover what materials are sustainable and where those materials come from.
  - Understand what can be done to a home to help it be efficient.

Objectives

Investigate innovations in buildings that help to save energy and protect the environment.
Build a new home that uses some of these techniques. Design and advertise a home (3,000 sq. feet max) for a 4-person family living in the US using at least one Sustainable Architecture principle or Green Energy Source.

Activity

Check out some ideas:
Open the GREEN BUILDING activity from Build Challenges in your Minecraft Library.
1. Do the Activity
2. Design your house (label your green technology)
3. Option One:
  1. 1. Design and create an environmentally sustainable plot of land with an environmentally sustainable home.
      1. You will create the home structure itself and can choose to go further by designing the interior
      2. You will create at least two features on the land outside to support the sustainability
4. Option Two:
  1. 1. Design and create an environmentally sustainable plot of land with an environmentally sustainable building or business.
      1. You will create the building/business structure itself and can choose to go further by designing the interior
      2. You will create at least two features on the land outside to support the sustainability

Extensions

Open the BEE CREATIVE activity from Build Challenges and make a pollinator garden near your house.
Expand to an entire sustainable community (more below... coming soon).
Use Minecraft to make a plan for new school garden.

Sustainable Communities

The term "sustainable communities" has various definitions, but in essence refers to communities planned, built, or modified to promote environmental and economic sustainability, urban infrastructure, social equity, and municipal government. The term is sometimes used synonymously with "green cities," "eco-communities," "livable cities" and "sustainable cities."

Background: Play these worlds in Minecraft

Sustainability City
- - This world is a space to explore aspects of sustainable living, from forestry to wastewater, recycling to clean energy, and more!
Lumen Power Challenge.
- - Where does the electricity we use come from?
  - What is the problem with these energy sources?
  - What is renewable energy?
  - What is the energy transition?

Objectives:

Create a community in Minecraft that exemplifies demonstrates at least some of the following:

ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY
- Satisfaction of basic human needs for clean air and water and nutritious, uncontaminated food.
- Protection and enhancement of local and regional ecosystems and biological diversity.
- Conservation of water, land, energy, and nonrenewable resources, including maximum feasible reduction, recovery, and reuse and recycling of waste.
- Utilization of prevention strategies and appropriate technology to minimize pollution emissions.
- Use of renewable resources no faster than their rate of renewal.
SOCIAL WELL-BEING
- A reliable food supply that optimizes local production.
- Adequate health services, safe and healthy housing, and high quality education for all members of the community.
- Maintains a place that is safe from crime and aggression.
- Fosters a community spirit that creates a sense of belonging, a sense of place, and a sense of self-worth.
- Stimulation of creative expression through the arts.
- Protection and enhancement of public spaces and historic resources.
- Provision for a healthy work environment.
- Adaptability to changing circumstances and conditions.

Resources:

The "Starter Town" world in your Minecraft library might help
You can also modify the "Sustainability City" template

Additional Videos for inspiration

Redstone Resorts

World File

Students work in a team as they transform this paradise island into the newest tropical resort for villagers. Minecraftia Del Mar is advertised as the most epic resort in the land. Can you use NPC advice and media to create your own solutions for the company and then present your resorts before sharing globally?

Students will work as a team both in a larger and small capacity to meet deadlines and goals.
Students will turn NPC advice and media offerings into their own solutions
Students will critically analyze the geography available and design features to suit the geography and villager needs and wants.
Students will use porfolios and cameras to capture the build process and the final resort for Redstone Resorts.

Redstone SMART VILLAGE

Students need to search for a village seed online for them to use.
When creating their world students should use the seed they found online and make sure they are in an infinite world, creative mode.
Once they have created their world they will need to map out the village using grid paper.
Then they must work out the most effective way to power the village using redstone and day light sensors with at least one switch in each house.
Redstone circuits should not be visible (aim for under the ground if possible)
Each house or building in the village should have their own switch to turn the lights off if they choose.

Performance Expectations

Students are expected to use design and creativity when considering how to map out their redstone circuits throughout the village.

Guiding Ideas

When you mapped out your village did you consider the height of the buildings and how to get the circuit going into the roof?
Have you used daylight sensors (solar panels) as your power source for the redstone dust?

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