Friday, December 4, 2009

Eco Huts at Makarora

Makarora have been investigating eco-building. I last went to visit them mid term 3 and had a real good session looking at different building designs and construction methods.

This term it was time to start building a few models how their designs and then put them to test with a few experiments to see how strong they are.

We managed to isolate three different designs, a simple box type shape, a curved roof - a little like an aircraft hangar and a good old fashioned pyramid come tepee shape. We had an absolute ball making these models and the students soon started to realise the problems that you can face when trying to join diffferent materials together and make them strong.

they have been doing lots of inquiry into weaving and one of the rooves was weaved from some harakeke leaves from the edge of the field. Even though this roof wasn't on the strongest of structures we soon realised that this is a fantastic option for creating a strong roof and wall.







Worm Farming with QPS Middles

The middles syndicate of Queenstown Primary have been doing some amazing work with worms this year. I've visited all of the classes and we have learnt so much. So much in fact, that when I visited them a couple of weeks ago I was blown away with the knowledge these young people have about taking care of their organic waste.

They have been collecting their food scraps for a while and sending them to some chickens who live with a few of the teachers. However, it's always good to have a solution on site and as it turns out, the food the worms don't like, the chickens love, and vice versa.

We've all made the now famous, worm farm in a milk bottle, but a few classes have taken this a few steps further. Using the amazing design planner from the Enviroschools kit and their knowledge they have set about designing their own worm farms.

A few models have been made and to ensure that they are on track with their designs they had an amazing peer review session. The students presented their designs to other students and used the feedback form that to alter their designs where necessary.

Well done QPS! You've been doing amazing work, once again! I can't wait to see the finished items.