educating the sustainability...

Ioannina, 14 June, 2012 Eindhoven University of Technology

Educating the sustainability generation

Kees HuizingElise Quant – Daniël de Wolf

Erasmus IP Light & Sustainability

Ioannina 14 June 2012 – Kees Huizing – Eindhoven University of Technology

The sustainability generation

When you live in trees, waste is another one’s problem...

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The sustainability generation

a child of the 21st century grows up knowing she is not only consumer but also producer

of waste, CO2, etc.

she is part of a technologically complex network

what is needed to operate as a responsible citizen in this network?

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take responsibility

a generation grows up realizing that

your behaviour has consequences for the planet

what is responsible behaviour?

need to understand what the ecological impact of your actions is

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21st century skills

collaborationcommunicationICT literacysocial and cultural competencies (including citizenship)creativitycritical thinkingproblem solving

Twente University research

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skills for the sustainability generation

ICT literacy

science literacy

math literacy (numeracy)

citizenship

critical thinking

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Skills (ctd)

environmental issues are not black/white or moral things

they are about trade-offs like:

Living in Eindhoven, should I buy lettuce from Egypt (air transport) or from local farmer (greenhouse heating) ?

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Literacy

these trade-offs involve:

physics, chemistry, biology → science literacy

numbers → math literacy

information → ICT literacy

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Or not?

do we have to bother our children with all this?

forbid bad behaviour by law and publish simple advice?

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the CFLEC has banned the incandescent bulb (not halogen)

in favour of the Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL)

Dutch journalist Karel Knip has estimated the effect

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Estimationa.80% is saved by a CFL compared to a bulb

b.20% of household electricity is for lighting

c.16% of electricity is for households

rest is factories, schools: hardly any incandescent bulbs

d.15% of primary energy is for electricity

(Dutch situation)

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MAX SAVING

0.80 · 0.20 · 0.16 · 0.15 = 0.38 %

assume 80% can be replaced by CFLs

then saving is 0.3%. How much is this really?

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MAX SAVING

0.3 % saving...

you save more energy when:

you go to work by car every day of the year and

you take the bicycle

one day a year

is this worth it?

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Critical thinking

Behaviour change only has ecological effect if many people change

manipulation is around the corner

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Drinking example

(Dutch news): Europeans are the heaviest drinkers of the world

12.5 liter of pure alcohol

that is almost 3 glasses of wine per day

That’s a lot! Hmm...

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3 glasses of wine per day?12.5 liter per year = 12.5 / 365 * 1000 = 34 ml per day

what is the size of a wine glass?

125 ml is a normal wine glass; glasses are often larger than this (Dutch bars)

1 glass of wine contains 125 * 0.13 = 16.3 ml alcohol

that is 34 / 16.3 = 2.1 glass per day

beer: 300 * 0.05 = 15 ml alcohol → 2.3 beers per day

13% is a common

percentage

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Other example

Politician starts campaign against energy drinks for children

Radio interview

energy drinks are popular among children

contains lots of caffeine, taurine, sugar

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Group estimate

how much caffeine contains 1 (small) can of energy drink?

relative to a average cup of coffee e.g., ½ cup of coffee, 2 cups

think, do not google, do not talk

and write this number down

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Group estimate 2

how much sugar contains 1 (small) can of energy drink?

in lumps of sugar

think, talk with yor neighbour, don’t google

and write this number down

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back to the story

radio interview with politician

she visited schools ans asked children to guess the amount of sugar in one glass of soft drink

answer she gave: 18 lumps of sugar

this is in a liter of coca cola...

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Discussion

Discuss in groups of four

Were these simple mistakes or intended?

What would you tell in class?

Does it depend on the age?

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Skills for critical thinkingon sustainability

(a.o.)

math (arithmetic)

estimating

measuring

collecting data

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Class activity

How many euro coins do you need to make a stack as high as the Eiffel Tower?

Do they fit in your classroom?

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Hints

Eiffel tower is 324 m

Euro coin is 23 x 2.3 mm

You don’t need the thickness for the second question!

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Eiffel calculation example

Eiffel tower is 324,000 mm high

1 coin is 2.3 mm thick

324,000 / 2.3 = 140870 coins

stack them in piles of 3 m high

324 / 3 = 108 piles = 9 · 12 piles = 20.7 cm x 27.6 cm

so the coins fit on a sheet of A4 paper!

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and...

can you do it with the Mount Everest?

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Estimating

How many words are there in a good-sized novel?

How fast does human hair grow in km/h?

How many water melons fit in the Parthenon?

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Estimating

all kind of levels

number of bricks in school wall

number of bikes in the city

number of cars that pass your house in one day

the power of powers:

going to area or volume can be surprising

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Measuring etc.counting

light bulbs, cars in your street, lamps in the school

measure

consumption in your house of electricity, gas, water

observe your own behaviour

flights, car kilometers, television hours

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Other activities

ideas?

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Dimensions

when all people in the world join hands you get a chain that …

wraps around the world 250 times

when all people in the world stand together, they fill an area of…

Crete (actually, half of it)

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Dimensions

When all people in the world are stacked together…

you could fill up the Lake of Ioannina

and get a pile of 150 m above water level

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Every breath you takeWhat’s the chance that you inhale now one molecule of air that was exhaled by Socrates in his last breath?

Assume all Socrates’s breath molecules are still in the air

Long time ago, so all molecules are spread out evenly all through the atmosphere

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Calculation (1)

a: number of molecules in one in-/exhalation

n: number of molecules in the atmosphere

a/n: chance that an arbitrary molecule is exhaled by S

a/n is very small: 2.2 · 10-22

but...

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Calculation (2)

a/n: chance arbitrary molecule is an S-molecule

1-a/n: chance arbitrary molecule is not an S-molecule

Suppose you inhale 2 molecules chance that they are both not from S: (1-a/n)·(1-a/n) = (1-a/n)2

Suppose you inhale a molecules (same as S)chance that they are all not from S: (1-a/n)a

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… << 0.01

so chance of inhaling at least one molecule of Socrates’s last breath is >> 1-0.01 =

calculation (3)

(1� a/n)a = (1� 2.2 · 10�22)2.2·1022

almost 1

very small very big

} } = . . .

99%

power wins…

chance of not inhaling

an S-molecule

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Gathering data

be critical

mistakes

lazy copy

own interests

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Group activity

Calculate the total energy consumption of this workshop

Energy consumed in form of electricity, gas, oil

Put your calculations in the provided spread sheet, add explanation

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Subcalculations1.international transport (IRL, NL, S)

2.international transport (P, I, CY)

3.local transport (GR)

4.activities (Going out, transport)

5.personal (food, shower, airco, telephone, hairdryer, ...)

6.lecture hall (light, beamer, airco, ...)

7.excursion39


Links

http://huizing.name

then click on Erasmus: energy footprint files and then Energy Footprint spreadsheet

collect in this room at 13:15

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Schedule

lecture part 1 11:00

break + discussion 11:45

break part 2 12:00

group assignment 30 min 12:45

collect + summerize 15 min 13:15

lunch 13:30

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