Project Utopia is a project that the whole year group had undertaken throughout Terms 2 & 3. Our task was to design our own Utopia applying liveability factors and research. It not only covered the aspects of humanities with liveability, but also covered science with sustainability and English with reading a novel.

During quarantine in March/April, we were introduced to a book called The Giver. This book talks about a boy that lives in a seamlessly “perfect” world where everything is perfect. From a readers point of view, we could definitely tell that it wasn’t. It was then when we learned the word ‘Utopia’, meaning a perfect world.

Term 2 we went on to build a sustainable house for science. We had to include 35 different ways that our house was sustainable, that we would later implement into our society. Not knowing it, this was just the beginning of a large scale project that we would face over the next 2 terms.

Global Goals

The Global Goals are 17 different individual tasks that the United Nations have created and trying to achieve in the year 2030. By achieving these goals in our society, we would gain an accreditation acknowledging that we had fulfilled the needs of that goal. We were accredited in goal #11 by including a 5 bin system consisting of a compost, plastic, paper, glass, and metal bin. This made the community more sustainable as it meant zero waste and nothing was going to landfill, everything was recycled to be used again. We included a pescatarian diet to have responsible consumption and production, goal #12. As a pescatarian, you are only allowed to eat vegetables and fish, reducing a whopping 15 000 litres needed to produce just 1 kg of red meat! To aid in that process, we use aquaponics in our society. In simple, its a fish tank on the bottom connected to a veggie farm on top, with no soil. The fish from the bottom provide compost for the veggies above, and the veggies provide food for the fish at the bottom. Lastly, we used electrical roads for goal #13, climate action. It has a charged rail in the middle and a mechanical arm extends from the car, and collects the power. This helps save the need to use fossil fuels and means you  don’t have to build any fuel stations.

Liveability Factors

The 6 liveability factors are Climate, Environmental Quality, Infrastructure, Safety and Stability, Access to Healthcare and Education, and Community. Our 5 bin system helps satisfy climate as not having a landfill bin can reduce methane gas production from landfills. It also satisfies environmental quality because it improves the environment and the quality of air that we breathe. The use of aquaponics and a pescatarian diet contributes to a better environment due to the fact that it saves tons of water needed to produce other meats.

Successes

We were very organised, every single piece of work was handed in on time. There was very effective communication amongst us. Using the aid of Teams, we were able to communicate with each other outside of school and get things finished. A schedule was created for the group to distribute out tasks that each group member could be completing. It was ordered in a list of high priority to low priority.

Challenges      

Amongst the many successes our group had, we did have our challenges. Through the challenges we all showed lots of resilience. We seeked help when we were stuck. There were lots of small little arguments about things however we managed to negotiate and work things out. There was that one time where we forgot who was saying what and which order things were. 

CoSpaces:

Using the aid of CoSpaces, we were able to create a digital masterpiece. We built our aquaponics, electric roads, and our bins as well as a birds-eye view of the community. Included below is an image of the things we built

Summary:

Throughout the hard times, we worked through them and managed to create a masterpiece that people could admire and give us a sense of satisfaction. Project Utopia tested our limits and pushed us to reach our full capabilities.

Many thanks to Abhinav Kolachana and Tom Smith for being awesome groupmates.