Hivve’s real life lessons in caring for our planet
St Christopher’s Catholic Primary School in Holsworthy, Sydney, has partnered with Hivve and ARENA to undertake a 12 month trial of a Hivve sustainable classroom in a real school environment. An exciting byproduct of the trial has been the incorporation of Hivve into the teaching and learning curriculum at the School.
The St Christopher’s Hivve classroom was built and commissioned for the start of the 2018 school year and is currently used by Year 6 students. “The results of the trial have been wonderful,” said Richard Doyle, Director of Hivve Technology. “From Day One the Hivve has generated five to six times more energy than it uses, offsetting the whole School’s electricity consumption and reducing the School’s power bills.”
“We’re also delighted that the Hivve’s combination of intelligent design, solar power and smart technology has been actively used by St Christopher’s and other schools as part of their STEM program,” he said, “with our Hivve described as “an effective real-life laboratory”.”
The School has worked with Dr Simon Crook to develop Science teaching units which utilise the data generated by Hivve Technology, allowing students to compare the Hivve’s performance to that of a standard demountable classroom. The units of work include a focus on energy generation and usage, temperature inside and out of the classroom as well as air quality. Students as young as Year 2 have been accessing the Hivve, as have neighbouring schools involved in a STEM enrichment opportunity.
“Normally no-one wants to be in the demountables,” said Tony Boyd, Principal at St Christopher’s. “But even the classes in the bricks-and-mortar buildings want to be in the new classroom. The kids love it because it’s a very comfortable, inviting space, but they are also really interested in monitoring how much electricity it is generating.”
“This is a great way to get the next generation involved in renewables at an early age,” ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said.