Comfy House: Innovative pedagogies for sustainable building renovations
The European Green Deal is at the heart of the new EU agenda. Its aim is to make Europe climate neutral in 2050. The energy efficiency renovation of buildings is one of the levers for a low-carbon transition, where building renovation solutions represent great potential. The conclusions of the Global Summit 2020 show that stimulating education and green skills at all levels of education are critical for enhancing the opportunities for regional development.
The aim of the Comfy House project is to develop and implement an innovative, tailored-made educational programme for teachers and pupils that will increase kids’ understanding of the renovation of houses for their energy efficiency purposes.
Aksantys and other European partners are committed to creating a holistic and complex conceptual framework, which would allow the implementation of the educational programme in a systematic manner into the general educational curricula. A Special Pedagogy Guideline, addressed to local stakeholders, policy makers, and schools’ headmasters, will also be created in order to support green education in the educational system. Partners will organize a series of trainings, local exhibitions, as well as international meetings to elaborate on the strategy on how to promote energy efficiency solutions for houses.
Project funding: Erasmus+, (European Commission)
Project partners: Panevezys Vytautas Zemkalnis gymnasium (Lithuania), Scoala Gimnaziala No 79 (Romania)
The project will run from October 2022 to September 2023.
Comfy House study tour in Bucharest
On December 7-10 2022, a meeting of partners from Comfy House took place in Bucharest, Romania.
The activities of the three-day study tour were planned in a way to exchange maximum information about the STEAM approaches being used and implemented by project partners in their daily activities.
During the whole day meetings, teachers exchanged their best practices on how to implement STEAM related to the topics of climate change and climate mitigation.
Special classes were prepared by the hosting school in order to practically present the STEAM approaches being used in their daily teaching activities.
The cultural events were organised by the Host familiarizing partners with the Romanian tradition, cuisine and culture.
The next Comfy House activities have been planned.
The three-day meeting was interactive, intensive and integrating.
Need analysis among teachers and students for better energy efficiency change
Within the ComfyHouse project special survey and talks were performed among teachers and students to determine their practical knowledge on saving heating energy, water and electricity in their homes. The results, presented in this report, shows that pupils have very basic knowledge about using resources in their homes (water/electricity saving, recycling). They are not aware of the correlations between home construction and household savings. These topics are generally not covered in school classes due to the fact that there is a lack of comprehensive studies on the subject tailored for school-aged children. This report is aimed to fill this gap.
In response to these challenges, the ComfyHouse partners are committed to create theoretical and practical materials for teachers and pupils to improve and organize their knowledge in this area in a structured, innovative and tailor-made manner.
ComfyHouse project for better understanding energy efficient solutions for houses
ComfyHouse partners are proud to announce that the first part of the educational materials for kids aged 11-15 on energy efficiency solutions for houses have been released.
Within Erasmus + project teachers from Panevezys Vytautas Zemkalnis gymnasium and Scoala Gimnaziala No 79 from Bucharest and Aksantys’ experts, have prepared the innovative handbook for kids aged 11-15 on how to make the house energy efficient. On the 50 pages of the book, teachers try to explain to pupils such topics as: eco-friendly building materials to be used in house construction, the environmental friendly solutions for different types of houses. They provide examples on how natural light, water and plants can be used in order to improve house energy efficiency. Renewable energy sources that can be used for heating were also explained.
We encourage all teachers to benefit from this innovative and interesting book and to use it in their daily work with pupils.
The materials can be downloaded in English, French, Lithuanian and Romanian
ComfyHouse classes scenarios for teachers based on STEAM approach are released!
ComfyHouse partners are thrilled to present to all teachers, coaches and pedagogues the innovative classes scenarios based on the STEAM approach. The topic covered within this programme covers broadly speaking energy efficient solutions for houses. By incorporating science, math and art, the partners prepared five sessions, each consisting of two 45-minutes long lessons, and each covering different topics, related to energy efficiency.
We encourage all teachers to get familiar with the scenarios, download them for free and use them during their classes.
Topics of the sessions are the following:
- Session 1. How to build a house in different climate zones?
- Session 2. How to design a house in the most energy efficient way?
- Session 3. How can natural light, water and plants be used in order to improve the energy efficiency of houses?
- Session 4. Renewable energy sources in your house
- Session 5. Environmentally saving measures in your house.
The scenarios are built around the topic of creating the house of your dreams and are enriched by the Handbook for kids, explaining the concept in more detail.
ComfyHouse Innovative Pedagogy Guideline for supporting STEAM is now available
The aim of this Innovative Pedagogy Guideline for STEAM is to shed some light on the interrelation between STEAM and different pedagogical approaches. By using ComfyHouse experience, we try to answer the question whether traditional educational approaches can support STEAM in a more regular and systemic basis. We try to prove that different types of pedagogies can easily implement STEAM approach, when some specific conditions are satisfied. We also show that STEAM approaches enrich different types of pedagogies, by supporting the development of social competences, effective response of educational curricula to green and digital transition, or encouraging the use of the project-based learning. ComfyHouse educational materials effectively respond to the recent challenges in rapidly changing world.
The materials can be downloaded in English, French, Lithuanian and Romanian
Farewell transnational project meeting in Lithuania
The last transnational project meeting ComfyHouse took place on 6 – 8 September 2023 in V. Zemkalnis gymnasium in Panevezys, Lithuania. The meeting gathered all Project partners with the aim to summarise the project activities, perform evaluation of the work being done, as well as discuss potential plans for the future collaboration. All partners were warmly welcomed by teachers, school principal, town mayor in Panevezys municipality and most importantly by the children. As a final activity, the Host invited all the partners to the national STEAM centre to present robotic classes, 3D printer and artificial intelligence classes as well as laboratories. As part of getting to know Lithuanian culture, the Host organized a visit to Hill of Crosses and manufacture of traditional Lithuanian bread. At this stage we would like to thank our Project partners for an incredible experience we had in this project, openness, cultural experience and great collaboration. We cannot wait to collaborate with you in the near future!
