From concrete to cookers: Understanding the environmental impact of buildings

From cookers to concrete: Understanding the environmental impact of buildings will engage school children in a web-based game designed to develop their skills in recognising where carbon dioxide is produced in buildings and what they can do to reduce it. The proposed engagement project aims to instil demand for more environmentally benign methods of construction and building use in future generations of construction clients and the public as building users. The work seeks to increase awareness of the potential that marked shifts in design and construction methods (such as the use of innovative construction materials and servicing methods to achieve zero-carbon buildings)) have for maintaining our quality of life in a sustainable manner. It is necessary to inspire future building users to demand the use of new technologies and new practices so that they will become commonplace without need for regulatory mandate. The project will last twelve months and has been designed to coordinate with the school calendar. The project will be evolve over three phases. The initial phase will be the development phase and will involve the educational partners and researchers and the creation of a database; a series of building model animations and a public interface for the game specifically and the project in general. The second phase will be a strategic piloting phase within our partner schools, two at primary level and two at secondary. This phase will involve an iterative process of developing educational material tuned to the specific requirements of the different age groups. The third and final phase will be the implementation of the game and support material within the schools and the dissmenation of the project outcomes. The implementation will be designed to meet the needs of the specific schools and the material will be developed to allow a flexible delivery. The dissemination will be through various media but will culminate in an exhibition to be hosted by the Lighthouse and will showcase the work of the schools.