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Building Green for 6th Grade designLab Students

V Parker
St. Luke’s designLab teacher Mrs. Gerardi challenged her 6th grade students to design economically-efficient homes by creating their own clean energy prototypes. The model home challenge is part of Habit for Humanity’s online learning curriculum. In small groups, the students built quarter-inch scale models using the Engineering Design Process. After several sessions of working on their projects, students shared their works in progress with professionals from the design building industry.

Executive Director of Housatonic Habitat for Humanity Fran Normann, Founder and Owner of Design Dot Megan Wunderlich, Technology Designer Magazine Senior Editor Steve Panosian, Mark Robbins from MHR Development, and Doug Kenyon from PC Construction Company shared their insights with the St. Luke’s 6th grade design students.

Gerardi commented, “Students shared their models with the visiting professionals, who provided feedback in small roundtable discussions. The students had been learning about the science behind sustainable living from a design engineering perspective only. With the visiting professionals, the students took their learning one step further and explored how their designLab work could be applied in real-world scenarios. It was a great opportunity for our students to share their solar energy and geothermal systems prototypes with experts in the field.”
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St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.