This year, we thought it would be a good idea to build an outdoor classroom that would be a pleasant experience for both students and teachers, and without the use of electricity. we needed to learn many things before we started even designing what this space could possibly look like, such as what materials are good conductors of heat? how do we use the sun's light comfortably and efficiently? And many other questions. Below is some more information on the project.
Site selection: one of the most important factors of the outdoor classroom design is where the classroom is going to be built. we had to think of the most important factors that this space needed to have. Our group thought that the space needed to have shade, ground must be level, ground quality must be good, quiet, size, accessibility, symbiosis, and shade. We looked at three sites, and we found that the best site was behind the art room, across from the softball field, We thought that this site had almost all the components we were looking for, and it would be the best place to begin the design for our outdoor classroom.
Concepts: Law of thermodynamics: 0th law: If two systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then they are in equilibrium with each other. 1st law: energy is neither created nor destroyed, but is transferred to one form to another. 2nd law: enorpy increases and over time everything becomes the same tempature. 3rd law: temperature can never reach zero. heat will always exist. Conductor: a soild material which heat is transferred. insulator: A material used to keep heat or cold in. opposite of a conductor Radation: Transfer of heat through waves, particles, or rays. convection: transfer of heat through a fluid. specific heat capacity: the amount of heat required to change a unit of substance by one degree of tempature.
States of matter: Solid: molecules are bonded firmly together to one another and held density liquids: molecules are bonded firmly together, but can change which molecules there bonded to. gases: molecules are very rarely bonded together.
Angles of the sun: An important factor to consider when creating the outdoor classroom is where the sun is relative to where you are at the San Marin campus. We don't want to be directy in the sun during the summer, so we need to know where the angle of the sun hits us. We did a small lab, and we found that the suns tilt is 23.5, which aslso tells us why it is so hot in the summer.
Why would we want to use less electricity? Each of us were assigned to do some research on different types of ways to create energy, and below is the results which tell you why we would want t use less electricity.
:Refection: Overall, this was a very interesting project, but I think that some of the labs were a bit unnecessary, because we did not use those components in the final product of the outdoor classroom design. For example, although learning about electricity and how heat works was interesting, none of the outdoor classroom designs featured any way of using a system to create heat or to create electricity. But, I think that my group did work efficiently together in the end of the project. each person worked on a certain part of the project, and in the end everyone we finished on time and created a successful design. I felt like I learned more about is how to collaborate more, and how people can contribute to the project without someone telling them what to do. Also, we had a sense of when the project would have to be finished, so we were also very good at managing time.One thing that I need to work on is how to be more of a leader. I just trusted that everyone was working and was on task, but I was never sure if our time was always being used efficiently. Also, I need to share more ideas with the group, because I did feel like I participated, but I could have shared more of my thoughts. However, I thought that our group worked well together and we created a good outdoor classroom design.