Becoming Energy Keepers with NEXT.cc

During Whitefish Bay’s Eco Day, May 6th, we invited passersby to engage with STEAM Education by Design through various journeys that emphasized energy, greening of your home, and celebrating zero net emission goals. Whether it’s the Green Dollhouse, Green Home, or Zero Net, journeys we love giving the autonomy back to the students and individuals on how they can become the energy keepers.

Inside the Green Dollhouse journeys, skills such as architecture, material exploration, dioramas, and intentional use of space are explored. These elements of the journey allow students and life-long students alike to think in more conceptual and eco-conscious ways that may have not been as accessible or “practical” to them. However, we see once they engage with the journey how fun and accessible it can be. With this beginning of accessibility, we see that power is given back to the individual on how much of an impact we actually have! Now imagine, if this accessibility was shared throughout our education systems.

When it came to Eco Day, curious children and family members stopped by our Green Home Journey opening up opportunities to discuss eco-friendly material, and passive eco-design principles of situating with the sun, orienting, ventilating with the wind, vegetating, hydrating, activating, insulating, and accessorizing. Students of Green Architecture Workshops experience multiple creative careers while building Green Schools,Green Neighborhoods, and Green Cities!

The final journey we loved sharing during Eco Day was the Zero Net Home journey. Both parents and children walked through the myriad of ways that can create Zero Net carbon emissions - getting the entrepreneurial parents excited as well. When we bring all perspectives and voices in the household working together through a journey, this is where we open the doors of conversation and STEAM conceptual thinking as part of the culture both inside and outside the classroom.

We thank the organizers of Eco Day for inviting us and for all the folks, both big and small, that stopped by to engage in conversation and learning journeys that NEXT.cc has to offer. What journey will you take through NEXT.cc ? Not sure where to begin? Start by checking out our Unpacking NEXT.cc blog post and let us know what you create!

Many thanks to NEXT.cc’s SMM Isabell Rizo and NEXT.cc Intern Dylan Groshek!