Lab 2 - Building Green

The second week of labs has passed by successfully with a focus on green building practices, which consisted of how sustainability combined with environmentally and people-friendly methods produces reliable green buildings. The main example of this lab was the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. This system helps classify green buildings in terms of their sustainability. Georgia Southern University’s Recreation Activity Center is certified in this system, which provided a visual of how green buildings look for the students.

Right at the start of the lecture, the teaching assistant asked the class to pull out their semester schedules for the lab. He had told the class that the schedule was available online for printing, but it was not a requirement to print it out. However, he checked off which students had their schedules and gave them a bonus point as a reward for being ready and keeping up with the class. To me, it seems like a very clever way to motivate the class. By having these unannounced bonus opportunities, an incentive is established for the students to work harder and be prepared for each class.

The teaching assistant then proceeded with the rest of the lecture, describing what makes buildings “green,” sustainability, and LEED. I noticed that in the middle of discussing what makes buildings “green,” he stated the normal practices of utilizing natural light, solar panels, and shading but also low emission paint. This low emission paint was quite interesting to me because it was something that I had never even considered could be made green. It came as a surprise, and even the teaching assistant presented it in that way. While it may not have exactly peaked the interest of many of the students, it was still a piece of information that sounded out of the ordinary and probed the mind into searching for what else could be made green.

After the lecture, the students were released to inspect and assess the campus buildings for their green design. Upon their return, they finished up their worksheets by completing their inspection forms and drawing maps designating the green properties of the buildings. The teaching assistant and I assisted the groups with any questions they had regarding the material. Most of the time the students worked diligently with their pencils constantly moving. However, when a pencil did stop for a good amount of time, the student was usually stuck on a problem. In the future this is something I plan to keep an eye out for as I walk around the room, so I can head over and be on the spot for any questions.

Building green was an efficient and effective lab. For the future, I would suggest the students draw two maps. One having the original green properties the buildings have now, and the other having designations of where new green additions could be made. This could include skylights, solar panels, bike racks, windows, and other additions the student thinks would be green. This would teach the students to not only observe the green characteristics of buildings, but how to implement them in a spatial arrangement for maximum sustainability.

The students can also visit http://www.epa.gov/greenhomes/index.htm to gather additional information about the components and goals of building green.