The year 5/6 classes are currently completing an Inquiry called ‘Green Blueprints’.  Students are investigating how ‘Organisations consider sustainability when managing systems and products’.

As part of our investigations,  last week we visited Christie Walk Ecocity to learn about sustainable systems and products used by the community.  Here are some key points from students:

Easily the most important part of Christie Walk is the thick straw walls. These walls help to lower food waste because straw is the excess of wheat, and also helps to regulate the temperature inside the building. First let’s talk about the food waste aspect of the straw walls in more detail. Wheat cutters do not always cut down all the way, so there is a lot of excess straw wilting and dying. Unless we cut the straw before it wilts and use it to create straw walls. The walls help keep people safe and warm and/or cool. The walls are so sturdy the can survive a mild or low earthquake. And the heating and cooling side effect is from the thick walls. Stopping warm air getting out and cold air getting in, vice/versa. Since the air is being stopped the people inside are nice warm or nice and cool. So the straw walls stop food excess going to waste. AND regulates the temperature - Connor

In Christie Walk they never throw things out. Whenever people have some spare clothes, furniture, devices and other things like that, they give it to another person so they don’t waste anything. It also helps save money because instead of going out and buying some new clothes/ furniture they can just get some free clothes from someone from the Christie Walk community - Cassian

The rooftop garden is a good way to share a space with your community and plant your own food so you can save money on food as well as gardening, every month the community of Christy walk does a working bee to save money on gardening. The rooftop garden is also a way of bring people together because of the fruit, vegetables, bees and the herbs they make on the rooftop garden. The garden has trees, bushes, herbs, fruit, vegetables and more. The roof is covered in concrete so that the roots of the trees don’t find a way to dig into the lower levels underneath the roof. The rooftop garden is covered in soil to make the plants live and grow - Georgia O