Designing a Sustainable House

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The cold weather months are an ideal time to encourage students to think about how we heat our indoor spaces, and the environmental impacts of the choices we make.

This can lead to exercising their creativity by designing their own healthy, sustainable home.  This is a multi-step activity:

  1.  Review a variety of videos showcasing options for sustainable building design.
  2.  Play the Building Design Game that shows the cost and impact of several building options.
  3.  Create a floor plan and sketch of their own ideal, sustainable home.

Intro Videos

VIDEO #1  – A tour through a beautiful home built of cob – a sustainable building material (3.56 min).

VIDEO #2 – Brief introduction to the concepts of green, sustainable and healthy buildings (2.25 min).

VIDEO #3 – A Landscape architect discusses design principles in a house built entirely from local and sustainable materials (5.19 min).

VIDEO #4 -A sustainable design expert explains some of the best approaches to making homes more environmentally friendly (7.33 min).

VIDEO #5 -A brief tour of 10 sustainable homes in various locations around the world (8.02 min).

Building Design Game

Teacher Sherri Owen has created an activity that explores a variety of building options (roof, insulation, electricity, appliances, heating), and involves students in making selections based on available funds.  The game PDF contains complete instructions and templates for money and building parts that can be copied before playing the game.  A simple video walks you through the process of playing the game.

Building Design Game PDF
Game Video

Design Your Own Sustainable Home

Now, design your sustainable ‘Dream Home’!  Use everything you’ve learned about building options and costs, and create a sketch and floor plan of the home you’d like to live in.

Then, have a tour of Dream Homes!  Students can compare their designs and explain the decisions made in creating their home designs.  Were there difficult choices to make?

Geocaching

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  • July
  • Activities, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Summer

Materials Needed

  • Cell phone or iPad
  • Geocache app downloaded
  • Pen
  • Small item to trade
Geocache Website
10 Tips for Newbies

Size of Group

2-20

Age Range

8-18 years

How to:

Join the biggest treasure hunt in the world!  You just have to download the app, find a geocache near you, navigate there using GPS and see what’s been left behind.  Bring a pen to sign in and, often, there are items to trade.  You take an item, and leave an item.

There are thousands of geocaches hidden somewhere in Peterborough and the Kawarthas!

Make a Decorated Quinzhee

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  • February
  • Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Shovels and buckets
  • Plenty of snow
  • Coloured ice cubes

Size of Group

1-10

Age Range

6-18 years

How to:

A quinzhee is a snow house made by piling snow into a huge mound shaped into a dome, and then carefully hollowing out the inside (making sure the walls remain thick).  Then, the outside can be decorated with pieces of coloured ice.

Quinzhees can be used as winter survival shelters.  This can be a great exercise in teamwork, and a large group can be split into smaller groups to build more than one quinzhee if there is enough snow.

Bumble Bee Watch

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  • June
  • Activities, Citizen Science, Insects, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Landmark 22, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Summer

Materials Needed

  • Camera with zoom
  • Access to website
Website Link

Size of Group

1-20

Age Range

7-18 years

How to:

Ontario is home to many species of Bumblebee, and June is an excellent time to go looking for them.  Bumblebees are social bees, and only their queen survives the winter.  The queen works hard in spring and summer to collect pollen, nectar and to lay eggs to build her colony.

Bumble Bee Watch is a Citizen Science program that encourages people to go out looking for bumble bees, learn to recognize species and to report what they’ve seen.  Visit their website, and get started learning about the fascinating world of bumble bees!

Turtle Patrol

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  • June
  • Activities, Animals, Intermediate Videos, Intermediate Workshops, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Landmark 28, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Videos, Middle Years Workshops, Senior Videos, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Student Workshops, Summer, Turtles, Videos, Workshops
Turtle Video #1
Turtle Video #2

Size of Group

any

Age Range

8-18

How to:

June is a month when many turtles are travelling from their wetland homes to drier places to lay eggs.  This can be a perilous journey if they must cross roadways.  The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre teaches about the species of turtles in Ontario, why they are in peril and what we can do to help (Video #1 – 11 minutes).  In Video #2 (6 minutes), older students can learn about turtle rehabilitation and get involved as volunteers.

Monarch Ultra Workshop

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  • October, September
  • Activities, Insects, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities
Video Link

Size of Group

any

Age Range

8-18 years

How to:

In this video, Carlotta James describes the Monarch Ultra Run, a long distance run from Peterborough to Mexico, to mimic the migration route of Monarch butterflies.  This amazing journey was designed to raise awareness of loss of habitat for these pollinators, and to raise funds for Monarch conservation.

After watching this 20 minute video, discuss what you can do to help Monarch butterflies in your area.

Tree Hunt

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  • August
  • Activities, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Plants, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Summer

Materials Needed

  • Copy of Tree Hunt Guide
Tree Hunt Poster
Tree Hunt Guide

Size of Group

1-20

Age Range

6-18 years

How to:

This is an activity where you hunt for local trees to match a collection of photos.  For families in the Peterborough area, we’ve prepared a selection of notable trees in City parks.  For people living elsewhere, have a family member secretly prepare a collection of photos of nearby trees, and then have the family go out to search for the trees to match the photos.  See the Tree Hunt poster and guide for more detailed instructions.

Water Critters

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  • August
  • Activities, Early Years Deeper Activities, Insects, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Summer, Water

Materials Needed

  • Net or sieve
  • Bucket or basin
  • Small container for scooping
  • Magnifier (if available)
Water Critters Poster

Size of Group

1-10

Age Range

3-18 years

How to:

This is a fascinating activity that children love!  If you have access to a shallow waterway such as a stream or lake, try searching the sediments to see what creatures you can find.  The poster above gives you instructions on how to approach this discovery activity.  Be sure to keep the critters in water while you observe them, and return them unharmed to where you found them.

Owl Workshop: Kookoo Onnagosh

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  • November
  • Activities, Birds, Educator & Parent Workshops, Fall, Indigenous Education, Intermediate Videos, Intermediate Workshops, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Senior Videos, Senior Workshops, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Student Workshops, Videos, Workshops
Video Link

Size of Group

any

Age Range

10-18 years

How to:

Educators from the TRACKS program share Indigenous and biological information about these fascinating birds of the night.  In this 1 hour workshop, learn cultural teachings and unique adaptations that make owls of Ontario unique and amazing!

Project Feederwatch

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  • November
  • Activities, Birds, Citizen Science, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Math, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Birdfeeder (s)
  • Birdseed
  • Binoculars (optional)
  • Access to internet
Website Link

Size of Group

1-20

Age Range

5-12 years

How to:

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology hosts so many wonderful programs for amateur birders!  Project Feederwatch is an excellent program for school groups.  If you can install a birdfeeder at your school, join the program and report what birds you see.  They provide information on what birds will visit your feeders in your region, and what to feed them.  You can also watch their live webcam anytime, and see if you can identify the birds that visit.  Observations can be used in the classroom to develop charts and practise a variety of math skills.

Bees Please

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  • April
  • Activities, Early Years Deeper Activities, Insects, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities

Materials Needed

  • Native Plants or Seeds
  • Garden Tools
  • Sunny Location
Bees Please Poster

Size of Group

any

Age Range

4-18 years

How to:

Go on a walk looking for native bees.  Some are active early in spring, when early flowers begin to bloom.  Think about what you can do to help bees.  This could be as simple as letting a sunny space remain unmowed, or as detailed as planting a pollinator garden.  Some great native plants to start a pollinator garden include purple conflower, black-eyed Susan, culver’s root, blazing star, goldenrod and bergamot.  For more detailed information about regional plants for pollinators, visit the Pollinator Partnership Canada website.

Kites in the Classroom

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  • May
  • Activities, Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Spring

Materials Needed

  • 1 kite kit per student
Web Link

Size of Group

1-20

Age Range

8-12 years

How to:

Many teachers have told us how much they enjoyed using kits from ‘Kites in the Classroom’ to combine science concepts with a fun outdoor experience.  If you have a budget for outdoor learning materials, consider purchasing these inexpensive but effective kits.  Costs range from $10 for one kit to a class set of 20 for $130.