Utopia Reflection

Project Utopia has taught me many new and exciting concepts about how I can incorporate my learning in different subjects that include English, HASS, InnovatED and Science. The purpose of Project Utopia was to design our own community which also included lots of many other steps.

Reading The Giver was the beginning of the journey where I would learn about the concepts of a ‘perfect world’. Some of the ideas of a Utopia in The Giver included no cars and walking or having a bicycle, everyone doing a certain amount of service time to help out with different jobs which the Elders (Committee) choose depending on who suits the job the best. In my community one of the ideas that I included was not using cars and walking or cycling.

In Sustainability I learnt about how to reduce water and energy usage through behaviours and features by designing and building a sustainable house. Some of the water saving behaviours included two-minute showers, watering the garden in the early morning or evening and turning off the tap while you are brushing your teeth. Some of the water saving features of a sustainable house were a rainwater tank and low flush toilet. The energy saving behaviours included turning off lights when not needed or if the room’s not in use and only turning on the dishwasher when it is full. The energy saving features are insulating water pipes, solar panels, insulated walls and roof and LED lights. These initiatives will help the world in different ways like making sure that countries do not have a shortage of water, reducing use of fossil fuels and production of greenhouse gases.

In my Utopia I included these sustainability features by putting solar panels on top of all buildings and having rainwater tanks around the community.

Sustainability also led to consideration of the environmental quality of my Utopia. This included where various services were located leading me to think of liveability factors such as building a community as it would influence the friendships and quality of life within my Utopia. The subjective factors would attract people into the community depending on their likes and dislikes. These liveability factors would help me to decide what buildings I would want to include in my Utopia.

In preparation for making my community I designed an overall plan. To me, the main thing that I had focused on was environmental quality as it affects the climate and the way that people live. I made provision for renewable energy and lots of green space for residents to enjoy.

A big part of my Utopia was the UN Global Goals. These are Sustainable Development Goals many countries wish to achieve by 2030. Most of them are focused on the environment and basic everyday needs. After prioritising the seventeen Global Goals, I could seek accreditations in some of the areas that were of most importance to members of my group. The accreditations gained were No Poverty and Affordable and Clean Energy.

I achieved the goal No Poverty by providing financial support such as having affordable babysitting and childcare centres to help support families and having a homeless shelter for people who don’t have access to everyday needs such as food, water and shelter. The other accreditation was Affordable and Clean Energy which was achieved by having solar and wind energy within the community.

While doing Utopia I had to use nearly all the College Capabilities such as problem solving by figuring out how I could provide solutions for the Global Goals like No Poverty and Affordable and Clean energy, collaborate by working together effectively in a group and effective communication by sharing ideas and helping each other. There were also lots of other capabilities that I used like creativity when considering how to make my community unique and being organised which helped to decide what would be the focus and priorities each week. The College Capabilities have helped me to work stronger and more productively as part of a team.

Project Utopia has been a challenging and amazing learning experience which has improved and taught me many new skills, as well as helping me to gain experience of the issues involved in planning modern communities.