This article describes a middle school energy literacy unit that uses green building science to uncover the important ways in which energy flows between natural and built environments. The place-based unit employs the student’s own school building as a learning tool to examine how light energy and thermal energy relate to the use of electrical energy—and ultimately impact global carbon emissions that result from using buildings every day. This article describes the unit capstone, an engineering design project where youth design an energy-efficient one-room schoolhouse. This is a team-based project where students use a suite of digital and analog tools to make design decisions. Engineering design is an eight-step process where students define, identify, brainstorm, select, test, iterate, prototype, and communicate their building design. The unit can end with a celebration of learning that brings in school administrators, peers, parents, and even design professionals from the community.
Cole, L. B., Zangori, L., & Otto, S. (2025). Engineering design for an energy-efficient one-room schoolhouse. Science Scope, 48(5), 26–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/08872376.2025.2537632