Our Children
When I thought about sustainable education issue, a question came to my mind: If we want to teach kids some knowledge about sustainability, what is the first word, the first point we should mention? Children love toys, comics, and dolls, how could a boy be interested in sustainable issue, which is not even interesting to an adult? Though we know it is an important topic, most children do not care much about global warming, energy consumption, recycling material.
Sustainable Toy
If I can make something that can attract children's attention, and make them wonder what is sustainability, then I already made a successful first step. If kids can have fun and learn about responsibility toward a toy at the same time, the toy will be very very valuable. Following this principle, I start drawing sketches about interactive toys. The most fascinating one is a ferris wheel, something that boys and girls all love it, even young couple are interested in. Simply by combining the ideas of playing a small ferris wheel and taking care a plant, I want to create an interaction that helps kids learn about responsibility toward playing.
Marvelous Ferris Wheel
"If you can water these grass and take them to the sunlight everyday, they will respond you by start rotating the wheel!"
This ferris wheel with real grass doesn't take power plug in or battery to rotate, instead, it takes tender loving care. Taking care of it in form of watering it and sun it will generate kinetic power and solar power to make wonderful thing happen: it start rotating!
Working Mechanism
The wheel rotation is driven by two power source. The first one is solar power, with solar cell on it.
for project presentation, please click here:
http://www.itp.nyu.edu/~htt213/Sustainable_Energy/Toy_Presentation01.ppt.htm
Environmental Friendly:
Taking Care of Your Flower
Enjoy the experience of taking care an interactive artificial flower!!
This toy the Flower, is mainly for kids around 8~12 years old, it also serves the function of education, to teach kids about responsibility and the concept of sustainable energy
inspired by coolhouse:
http://coolhouse.itri.org.tw/cyclopedia/roof-2.htm
http://coolhouse.itri.org.tw/cyclopedia/plant.htm
a) Sunshine: Charging
Every day kids take the flower to balcony to sun the flower in sunlight, as giving it enough time exposing sunlight to charge the battery in it.
REWARD: Dim Light
if you properly sun the flower(with enough electricity generated by solar cell on it), at night the flower serves like a dim light in your room staying with you while you fall asleep.
b) Watering: Filtering
The toy encourage kids to take used water(e.g. the water the has rinsed fruits or vegetables, face or hands washing) to water the flower. The water poured into the flower will go through an filter, and then become clean water that we can drink (???)
Reward: Happy Shaking
it has an water level indicator, once the water level is higher than certain amount, the flower will shake for seconds as an feedback.
Wanna lose some weight?
Easy and cost-free plan for everyone and for you!
Here's a device help you burn your body fat. Every time you 're going to take elevator, this device located in front of elevator will remind you to do take stairs instead. Specifically, the idea is that every time you approach an elevator, the device will detect your approaching and light up LED to remind you to take stairs.
By often taking stairs, it doesn't only strengthens your heart and lung capacity, but also helps you to burn your extra body fat (See Related Article Here). This is the most easy way to do exercise and obtain the benefit of it. Health expert said that if we take stairs 10 minutes a day, we'll lose around 5 kg a year. Not only that, we reinforce our bone density and heighten muscularity by taking stairs.
Save, for the future
In respect of sustainability, this
device not only saves electricity by less using an elevator, but also itself is a self power generating machine which doesn't consume any outsource power. It takes advantage of solar power, transforming sunlight into electricity. The electricity will charge the AA chargeable battery and make those LED blinking. No battery changing, no power plug in, this device simply serves where their is sunshine.
For Healthy Body, For Healthy Planet
For a better environment, we should:
-Stop over-consuming natural resources
-Start using body energy
We live together, we work together, we save together.
This project is produced by Roger H.T. TSAI and Ai-Chen Lin for the class of Sustainable Energy in ITP. Comments are welcome.
Contact us:
yesrogeryes@gmail.com