Sustainable Systems and Designing a Classroom Greenhouse.docx

In this unit, students will work in teams to design and build greenhouse prototypes that can be used in the classroom. Design teams will use the engineering design process to design controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) systems that can support a variety of plants. Activities will include experiments that foster exploration and evaluation of key concepts in CEA systems, and a variety of technology tools such as presentation and 3-D modeling software. At the end of this unit, design teams will develop persuasive presentations to “sell” their greenhouse prototype to the class. Awards will be given in various categories. At the end of this unit design teams will reconvene as a class to develop plans to integrate all greenhouse prototypes into a classroom CEA system.