Sustainable Tuesday

We started the day by finishing the filtration project, holding design presentations for the students, and determining the winning pair!

We then talked about Techstyle Haus, a sustainable house built by Brown University, RISD, and the University of Applied Sciences (in Erfurt, Germany).

Next, we introduced the final project for Spira 2014! The final project requires the students to work as engineers for their own firm to create a model of a sustainable house for a client. Every model must use, at least one motor, an Arduino kit, LEDs for a lighting system, and models of sustainable household elements. The final houses from last year's camp can be seen in the Spira 2013 Facebook photo album.

We then had a Skype guest lecture from Betsy Teutsch, author of 100 Under $100: The Women's Global Toolkit. She discussed innovations that help women and how engineering can be used to improve the lives of women.

Following lunch, the students worked with their groups to research information that would help with the model of their house. They then made sketches and floorplans for their design.

The students spent the rest of the day starting construction of their houses, which will be completed by Thursday afternoon!