The Green Design Lab™ (GDL) is the only curricular blueprint of its kind that looks at the school building as both a laboratory for learning and a tool for environmental change. Using a creative approach to problem solving, GDL inspires students in STEM, emerging green technology, and green careers, while promoting behavioral change in the direction of energy efficiency and healthier, greener schools.
The GDL curriculum, with units for Elementary, Middle and High School, contains a wealth of hands-on activities for student-led investigations, with an emphasis on problem-solving, design, and innovation. Each curriculum unit comes complete with student readers and teacher instructional guides for leading the activities.
The K-5 and 6-8 curriculum is comprised of five units – Energy, Water, Materials, Air, and Food, each containing 10 lessons. Students explore solar power, power plants, watersheds, indoor air quality, and healthy living.
CleanTech, Solar One’s high school curriculum funded by the National Science Foundation, engages students in sustainable design, emerging clean technologies and sustainability-related policy and economic issues at the local, national and global level. Through four units – Energy, Materials, Water and Food – students learn about topics like electric grid transmission, renewable energy, battery storage, demand management, water technologies, biomimicry, stormwater management, and hydroponics, to name a few.
