Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes – Part A: Earthship Provocation
45 minutes – Part B: Independent Research
10 minutes – Part C: Redefine
15 minutes – Reflection

Talking about bushfires often involves addressing sensitive issues. Bushfires are innately linked to death and dying, and as such, may evoke strong emotions, opinions, or raise challenging questions about values and beliefs that have no easy answers.

Please review the Handling Sensitive Topics and Issues factsheet for information on how to create a safe environment for your students and monitor all students during and after conducting this lesson. If you're aware of any students who may struggle with this content, chat with their parents or caregivers about a strategy for this child prior to the lesson.

Part A: Earthship Provocation

Step 1.

Watch:

Incredible Small Off-Grid Earthship Home (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1UjbmksKYI)

Provisions for Learning Extension: Martin’s article over at The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/before-we-rush-to-rebuild-after-fires-we-need-to-think-about-where-and-how-130049) further details his thoughts on building bushfire resilient housing. It also features some interesting challenges to Martin's ideas in the comments section, as well as his responses.

Consider asking students to write a review of this episode, an evaluation of Martin's techniques and ideas or a letter to the editor persuading people to adapt more earthship-style building practices.

Step 2.

Facilitate a discussion:

What did students find most interesting about the earthship design and philosophy?
What aspects of Martin's earthship did students disagree with, if any?
What are students still wondering about earthship that might require further investigation?

Part B: Research

Step 1.

Independently students investigate the following resources using the design document to organise their thoughts and take note of bushfire-resistant design elements and materials used in these real-world buildings.

Bushfire-resistant housing ideas (https://www.edigitalagency.com.au/architecture/best-bushfire-resistant-house-design-ideas/)
Fire-resilient homes for Australia (https://www.design-estate.com.au/affordable-fire-resilient-homes-for-australia/)

Provisions for Learning Support: Students might cover more ground working in small groups, splitting the articles across group members and sharing their findings with one another. Students who are strong independent workers will be able to support their peers with their approach to research as well as insights. All group members should record findings in their design document.

Step 2.

Invite students to share some of their findings with the whole class.

Students can add to their Design Document if they feel inspired.

Suggestions for reducing the impact of bushfires on infrastructure include:

Materials:

Concrete (100mm thick)
External timber of spotted gum, an Australian hardwood that is so durable it complies with bushfire rating requirements.
Corrugated steel frame
Aluminium window frames
Fireproof cavity masonry walls
Suspended concrete floor
Rammed earth walls
Using a layer of soil around the house is a buffer from flames and also insulates against extreme temperatures
Galvanised sheet cladding and roofing.
Non-combustible steel joists and bearers
Replace brushwood fences with metal fences
No flammable wooden decks, verandas, wooden cladding (walls)

Structural design:

A dome shell design that deflects embers.
A network of small sprinklers to soak the roof and outer cladding.
Thicker windows.
Bushfire shutters on windows.
Multiple outdoor water points so you can use multiple hoses if required.
Gutter guards to prevent leaves and embers settling in the gutters.

Environmental considerations:

Clear to provide additional separation between buildings and vegetation. Avoid having trees, fallen dry leaves, woodpiles, shrubs, mulch, combustible outdoor furniture or any type of debris or rubbish within eight metres of your house or property.
Clear dry leaves out of the gutters.
Point gas bottle release valves away from the house or keep a shed away from home to keep all flammable liquids. Ideally do not even store them.
Escape route: plan to build in safe evacuation routes out of the property if fire threatens.

Provisions for Learning Extension: It is likely that this phase will lead students down multiple rabbit holes of understanding, as new concepts require further research to understand, revealing even more new concepts. Consider expanding this phase across multiple lessons in order to give students enough time to explore and understand everything they want to cover.

One of the exciting aspects of the design process learning method is how students become engaged, self-directed learners, empowered to pursue their own interests and share their knowledge with the teacher-as-co-learner.

Part C: Redefine

Step 1.

An essential aspect of the design process is to reiterate on ideas to clarify and streamline them or to adapt to new ways of thinking as more knowledge is discovered.

Encourage students to return to the problem statements they created in the define phase and consider whether these are still applicable.

Over the course of their research, students might have discovered information that convinces them that those problem statements are infeasible or not the most appropriate way to approach the problem, or new problem statements may have made themselves known as students become more familiar with the subject matter and the challenges of designing for bushfire resistance.

Reflection

Many of the design solutions explored in these articles centre around designing houses with materials and features to resist an inevitable bushfire event.

However, with future fire seasons likely to be longer and more severe, is it even ethical to continue to allow people to live in bushfire-prone areas?

Are rural communities an essential part of Australian infrastructure, not to mention people’s way of life? Or can students make a case for fewer rural properties?

This line of thinking could be a radical departure from what students are currently considering, but it is potentially justifiable. A new set of problems statements would have to be created, including:

Where is food going to be sourced from if farmers can’t maintain rural properties or employ enough workers to run them efficiently?
Where are all the extra people from rural communities going to live?
How will communities and governments be convinced to abandon rural areas?

Provisions for Learning Extension: Consider expanding this reflection into its own lesson, asking students to write persuasive essays, or holding a debate on the merits of continuing to build in bushfire-prone rural areas.

Where to next?

Students have spent time understanding the needs of people affected by bushfires in the empathise phase, have analysed and synthesised these observations into human-centred problem statements in the define phase and now have a solid background of what is possible and most useful when designing for bushfire resistance. They will prove their understanding in the next phase, putting the ideas and theories they've researched into practice by starting to visualise and create a bushfire-resistant house in the ideate and prototype phase.

Teacher Reflection

It can be challenging to try a different teaching methodology, but it is a great way to further develop your practice.

In the design process model the instructor's task is to challenge students' preconceived ideas, foster their curiosity, pose challenging questions and provide support and guidance to students as they are self-directed in pursuing knowledge. This can potentially be difficult for students who are more familiar with the traditional role in learning of instructors as the main disseminator of information.

Take a moment to reflect on your practice by answering one or two of the following questions.

Did students appear confident in approaching the tasks of this lesson? If so, what's one thing you think you did that was effective in supporting them? If not, what's one thing you could do to better support them in the future?
What's something new, interesting or that you liked about this lesson? Why?
What's one aspect of this lesson that you found challenging to teach? Why?
What's one area of your practice that you felt these lessons helped you develop or practise? How?
What's one part of this lesson you would do differently if you were to teach it again in the future?
Were there any parts or activities that students may need more time on before progressing to the next lesson?
Did you identify any gaps in students' understanding?

Bushfire-Resistant Housing - Research Phase

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