The Build It Green! (BIG!) project transforms school buildings into real-world learning laboratories, helping students and communities connect global climate and energy challenges to their local environment. 

 

How BIG! Was Developed

BIG (DRL – 2201204) grew from NSF-funded research (DRL 2009127) exploring how school buildings can serve as tools for learning about energy and sustainability. The original unit was designed for local use to help learners investigate how energy moves through buildings, communities, and Earth systems. While the original curriculum significantly improved students' energy systems thinking it was expensive to implement, time-intensive for teachers, and needed concrete visuals to understand energy flow

 

The goal of BIG! was to continue supporting learners in using the built environment to investigate energy flow in building energy systems while reducing cost and time, and to provide dynamic simulations and animations of energy flow.

 

BIG was designed as a storyline unit (Reiser et al., 2021). In storyline units, students learn science by figuring out how energy transfers through the built environment through a coherent storyline rather than learning about a topic (Edelson et al., 2021; Nordine et al., 2019). BIG is anchored in LEED-certified green school buildings, so students can consider the differences between their school building and green school buildings. 

 

The embedded, open-access, manipulable simulations and visualizations allow students to investigate and revisit concepts that are too big, too small, too slow, or too fast to experience firsthand, enabling them to monitor and manipulate energy use within the building without requiring resources beyond an internet connection at school. Engineering design is embedded throughout the unit, where students apply their knowledge of energy flow to energy resources and problems in their communities.  

 

The focus of both units remained the same: through engineering design and school-building investigations, students discover how building and energy decisions shape a more sustainable future. BIG empowers students to explore energy systems and sustainable solutions in ways that are engaging, accessible, and locally relevant.