Before we knew anything about this project or even what a Utopia was we worked on different features that would come into it. We worked on them in 4 different subjects.
English: Reading the Giver was a meant to be an example of a perfect Utopian world but there were some imperfections
Science: Building a sustainable house with sustainability Features inside (energy and water-saving features and behaviours) Such as having tap timers, turning off the water when you wash your hair
HASS: The Liveability factors(Safety &Stability, environmental quality, access to healthcare and education, climate, infrastructure) &The 6 Geographical concepts(Place, Space, Sustainability, Scale, Environment, Change, Interconnection)
InnovatED: Having the opportunity to Build during this time
All of the above Subjects /aspects helped us in the creation of our Utopia
We had 9 weeks to use in Preparation for the big showcase night!
Process.
The beginning of this project started by making individual plans about how we would like our “perfect world” to look like. After that Ms Winter put us into groups, this where we then combined all of our individual plans to make an improved and combined plan(with a lot of drafts) until we got our final copy, from this we then agreed with our groups what materials we would need to make our utopia out of to make them out of, We chose plasticine and paper. For each Building In our utopia, we would make 1 out of plasticine and the rest would be drawn We also had to name our community/Utopia we decided to name our Utopia Paratissi because it means paradise in Finish
My group and I decided to base our community in Finland because we decided that Healthcare & Education and Sustainability would be a big part of our community as Finland has one of the best education systems in the world. Sustainability is good in Finland because we can have renewable energy all year round because in summer there is the- Sun (Solar Power) and in winter –Wind (Wind Turbines )
The next step in this process was to get our plan approved by Ms Winter where she then mentioned the global goals and said that the would enable us to get a better understanding of them and how they can enhance a community, We had to earn these through accreditation but first, we must sort these into a priority list of what our group thought was the most important to least important My group and I group thought that global goals 4,6,7,10,11 were important
The second last step in this process is to get building and aiming for accreditations. We first started building by drawing everything out onto paper and making the plasticine models, then got our blackboard and spread green plasticine all over it to make it look like grass. Every week we went for at least 1 accreditation this is how we now have 5 accreditations. We also worked on making speeches relating to our Utopia in English focusing on important public speaking skills as the acronym PVLEGS (Poise, Voice, Life, Eye contact and Speed), Where we then presented them to the class
The last step in our utopia was to create a constitution where we had to decide what type of government Paratiisi would have, My group and I decided that we would make our community a constitutional monarchy & representative democracy
Global goals.
Goal number 4, Quality education we have used this by having good quality public education with the best teachers around and each school focuses on each student’s individual needs.
Goal number 6, Clean water& sanitation we have used this in our Utopia by having drink fountains everywhere, a desalination plant and access to clean water.
Goal number 7, Affordable & clean energy we have used this in our Utopia by having an energy-saving area and having solar panels on all of our buildings.
Goal number 10, Reduced inequalities we have used this in our Utopia by having different schools for people with special needs, a wide range of places of worship for different religions & underground transport for people who are disabled.
Goal number 11, Sustainable cities and communities, we have used this in our Utopia by making Paratiisi inclusive for all by letting anyone come into our community no matter their race, colour, gender or religion, another part of this goal is making sure our houses are safe, we have done this by implementing multiple safety measures such as smoke detectors, security cameras & alarms, the last part of this goal is being sustainable because we don’t have any cars in our community and we only use renewable energy sources
My group and I agreed that these were the most important goals to focus on this is why we have accreditations for all of them these have a big impact on our community
ASC’S core capabilities also came into Project Utopia and used some skills like Collaboration, Leadership, Being creative, inquisitive and organized and using effective communication with our team members
Within the blink of an eye, it was the showcase night! Several of the guests who had visited us throughout the 9 weeks came to see the end product.
I really enjoyed this project because it lets you use your creativity instead of doing book work but you get to learn at the same time which was really fun! I Expanded my knowledge Over a variety of Areas, I learned more about the global goals and how they can help build community, how you can incorporate sustainability and the livability factors into your community