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.

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

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

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

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

Science – Science as a human endeavor

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

Science – Earth and 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)

Science – Physical sciences

• Energy exists in different forms, including thermal, chemical gravitational and elastic, and may be classified as kinetic or potential; energy transfers (conductions, convection, and radiation) and transformation occur in simple systems and can be analysed in terms of energy efficiency (VC2S8U15)
• Household energy consumption can be analysed using an energy audit and is affected by appliance choice, building design, season, and climate (VC2S8U16)

Science – 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)
• Reproducible investigations to answer questions and test hypotheses can be planned and conducted, including identifying independent, dependent and controlled variables where applicable, stating assumptions, recognising and managing risks, considering ethical issues and following protocols when accessing cultural sites and artefacts on Country and Place (VC2S8I02)
• Equipment can be selected and used to generate and record data with attention to precision, using digital tools as appropriate VC2S8I03
• Scientific methods, conclusions and claims can be analysed to identify assumptions, possible sources of error, conflicting evidence and unanswered questions (VC2S8I06)

Mathematics – Number

• Round decimals to a given accuracy appropriate to the context and use appropriate rounding and estimation to check the reasonableness of computations (VC2M7N04)
• Use the 4 operations with positive rational numbers, including fractions and decimals, to solve problems using efficient mental and written calculation strategies (VC2M7N06)
• Use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving rational numbers and percentages, including financial contexts such as ‘best buys’; formulate problems, choosing representations and efficient calculation strategies, designing algorithms and using digital tools as appropriate; interpret and communicate solutions in terms of the situation, justifying choices made about the representation (VC2M7N10)

Mathematics – Algebra

• Investigate, interpret and describe relationships between variables represented in graphs of functions developed from authentic data (VC2M7A04)

Digital Technologies – Data, information and privacy

• Analyse and visualise data using a range of software, including spreadsheets and simple database queries, draw conclusions and make predictions by identifying trends (VC2TDI8D03)

Capabilities – Critical and creative thinking

• The construction of a main question and sub-questions for different purposes (VC2CC8Q01)