Background

A sustainable house, also known as a green or eco-friendly home, is designed to minimize its environmental impact. These homes use energy-efficient appliances, lighting, and insulation to reduce energy consumption. They often incorporate renewable energy sources like solar panels and feature sustainable building materials to reduce their carbon footprint.

Sustainable houses are often designed with consideration for their orientation to maximize natural light and passive solar heating, and they may be situated to minimize their impact on the local ecosystem. Many use smart home technology to manage energy use more effectively, such as programmable thermostats, smart lighting systems, and energy monitoring tools.

Key Learning Question

What are the sustainable design features of an energy efficient home?

Learning Intentions

In this program students will:

• Learn about a variety of design features that make a house more energy efficient
• Consider the energy efficiency of a range of common home appliances
• Investigate ways of saving energy in the home

Activities

Students will:

• Analyse the sustainable design features of an Eco-house model
• Test appliances to investigate their energy consumption and efficiency
• Examine how modern houses incorporate additional energy saving features

Note: Maximum number of students for this program is 50 per day.

Victorian Curriculum 2.0

Science as a Human Endeavour

• Scientific knowledge, including models and theories, can change because of new evidence (VC2S8H01)

Earth & space sciences

• The sustainable use of Earth’s resources is influenced by whether the resources are renewable or non-renewable; the processes involved in resource extraction and energy production come with both benefits and risks to sustainability (VC2S8U09)

Physical Sciences

• Household energy consumption can be analysed using an energy audit and is affected by appliance choice, building design, season and climate (VC2S8U16)

Science Inquiry

• Investigable questions, reasoned predictions and hypotheses can be developed in guiding investigations to identify patterns, test relationships and analyse and evaluate scientific models (VC2S8I01)
• Equipment can be selected and used to generate and record data with attention to precision, using digital tools as appropriate (VC2S8I03)

Learning Continuum

The following Learning Continuum is a guide for teachers to show the links between the programs. Ecolinc offers onsite, online and through outreach. The Learning Continuum can be used to access Ecolinc resources to support the development of units of work.

Ecolinc Learn Online is an online learning management system offering interactive online courses for students and teachers. These courses can be undertaken either as a pre-visit, post-visit or stand-alone. Students are encouraged to do the pre-learning course before coming to Ecolinc for an onsite program.