Sustainable School
Subject Areas: Art, Science, Climate Change, Fashion, SEL
This activity serves as a culminating activity for the entire program. While no activity is a prerequisite, it is encouraged to do at least some of the other activities in the program, as each one covers content relevant to the discussion.
In this activity, students become Urban Planners, and re-design either the school or the entire community to be more sustainable.
Step by step instructions for this activity are also on the ROM Learning Portal and on the Student Site.
Preparation
Decide which activities you want your students to do before the Sustainable School activity.
Encourage students to explore some of stops 17-31 on the Sustainable Style tour.
Decide if you will have students complete this activity individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.
If you are having students work on the same world, encourage students to export a .pdf of the book they have been using in their own world first, so that they still have access to their research.
Learning Goals
Consider how aspects of daily life impact and are impacted by climate change and sustainability
Apply knowledge and understanding of climate change and sustainability in a project-based format.
Explain how design choices address climate change and sustainability goals.
Background Information
When Noelle Hamlyn is creating a Lifer, she thinks about the style of the clothing, how it was originally meant to be worn, how it was made, what the worn spots say about how its original owner wore it, and how it was decorated.
Noelle wants to remind us that every piece of clothing holds a story worth preserving, and Lifers help to tell that story.
At the same time, Lifers also make us think about how the ways we make and use our clothes affects the Earth around us.
The effects of the fashion industry affect water, the climate, the workers involved, and the waste we produce.
By applying everything you’ve learned from the Sustainable Style tour and activities to re-imagine your school or community, you can help teach others how to make more sustainable choices, and remind yourself how to make sustainable choices in the future.
Materials
Sustainable School Worksheet [Google] [Word] [PDF]
Pencil
Paper
Instructions
Step 1:
Be sure you’ve completed other Sustainable Style activities assigned to you and explored the Sustainable Style tour (especially stops 1 and 2).
Teacher Notes:
The activities your students complete are at your discretion. There is no assigned order to activities; the Sustainable Style world was designed for free exploration.
All activities can be reached from the Information building near the Lifer statue in the town square.
Step 2:
With your teacher’s help, figure out if you will be building a sustainable school or community, and if you will be working on your own, in groups, or as a whole class.
Teacher Notes:
This is also at your discretion, according to how much time you have to spend on this activity.
Small groups or whole class is recommended, but if collaboration is an issue, it can be done individually as well.
If you are doing small groups or whole class, encourage students who are joining other worlds to export their book & quill to a .pdf so they still have access to their research.
Step 3
Use what you’ve learned about climate change and sustainability to brainstorm what you would change, build, or include in your sustainable school or community.
Use the Sustainable School worksheet [Google] [Word] [PDF] to help organize your thoughts.
Teacher Notes:
If working in small groups or whole class, you may want to break up the topic areas into group roles / group topics for the brainstorming session.
Step 4:
Create a rough plan of your sustainable school or community and show it to your teacher or classmates for feedback.
You can create your plan on paper, or use design tools like Canva or a digital whiteboard.
Don't forget to think about how to make your school/community accessible to everyone!
Teacher Notes:
If doing this activity in small groups or a whole class, you may want to break up ideas from the brainstorming session and assign them to students and/or groups to plan and complete.
Step 5:
Use Minecraft tools to bring your school or community to life.
You could:
Change or rebuild existing buildings to be more sustainable.
Change or rebuild power supplies to be more sustainable.
Change the way the land in the community is used.
Add buildings, plants, or features to make the community more sustainable.
Use redstone or command block tricks for advanced details
Note: The walls and ceiling of the school are hollow to make it easier to add redstone solutions.
Teacher Notes:
The Build Tips and Tricks section on the student site will contain many tutorials and tricks for respresenting tricky ideas like "wind power" from a stationary windmill.
Possibilities for this are endless, but key ideas may include:
Build pipes from the underwater fissure behind the power plant into the boiler to use geothermal energy rather than burning coal to heat the water in the boiler.
Build a wind farm behind the power plant and use one of the tricks on the student build tips and tricks site to connect it to the power grid.
Build a tidal energy power circuit on the beach and connect tidal power to the power grid.
Plant community food gardens to help lower prices at the grocery store and provide food for the school cafeteria (also lowering pollution from the transportation costs).
Establish a sustainable fabric source on the island and convert the fast fashion factory to a more sustainable, worker-friendly model. (Don't forget to make the break room nicer!)
Use kelp from the nursery to do seaforestation offshore.
Establish beehives near community gardens to help pollinate crops and create a source of local jobs and income for the community.
Learn from the Indigenous knowledge keepers and establish Three Sisters as part of the food crops.
Establish a local farm and/or fishery (combined with seaforestation) for more local food and meat options.
Create houses connected to sustainable power supplies, or install daylight sensors.
Create sustainable transportations systems (bikes, e-buses, mass-transit, horses from a local farm).
Step 6:
Use slates, posters, and boards to your sustainable choices to explain what they are and how they make your school or community more sustainable.
Step 7:
Create a tour of your sustainable community, explaining your sustainable choices.
You could:
Create a guidebook using the camera and a book & quill
Create a video tour using an editor like Flip, ClipChamp, or Screencastify.
Ask your teacher which method you should use.
Follow Up
Thought Questions:
How has this project changed the way you think about sustainable choices?
What are some new things you learned doing this project?
Will you make any changes in your own life based on what you learned? Why or why not?
Extension Activities:
Research local Indigenous Ways of Knowing. What sustainable practices could help you with your sustainable school plan?
Make a case to your principal or vice principal to use some of your sustainable ideas at school.
Brainstorm sustainable solutions you can use in your classroom.