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The USS Hermit, A Ship to the Future

Hello, this is my Action Project for the class Redesign the Future. In this class we have covered climate change, Bill Gates' 5 Grand Challenges to tackling climate change, circular economy, systems thinking, and some of the Sustainable Development Goals. In this unit we went to The Plant Chicago where we learned about aquaponics, The Hive which talked about bees and their struggle against climate change, Friends of the Chicago River that taught us about our river and its history, Rheaply which showed us their company and an insider view of circular economy, and the Lincoln Park Zoo which told us about select ecosystems and habitats for their animals of all kinds. This unit went very in depth on the concept of systems thinking. We talked about certain actions that were made to solve problems such as the malaria in Borneo but the unintended consequences that followed and how to solve them. This AP is about a design that follows one of the 5 grand challenges and also how can you solve the grand challenges. I decided to pursue Agriculture and my design was a self sustaining boat that had farms and water purification so people can live on the boat. There is also renewable energy sources for power. While building my prototype I realized that my original idea of this being on a cruise boat could be tough so I switched to a repurposed cargo ship or freighter.

Below is a slideshow of all the work collected from this unit and class.



I enjoyed this project because it was fun to build the prototypes. I also liked going on all the Field Experiences because some of them changed how my design worked and how I thought out my idea. I am proud of my prototype because it was a big build and I managed to finish everything I wanted to in time along with a few extra details. I think the most difficult thing during this unit was my systems map. It took me quite awhile to write things down and think of ideas on what I would include in the map. Because I was already thinking big on the transformed boat idea it was a little tough to imagine close to every little detail. I overcame this by taking a break from it and listing what I wanted to include in the design. From this I could easily look back to the layout and items that I would need and how that would fit into the systems map. Eventually after moving some things around I managed to get the map done and it looked great. I had included everything I could think of that would need to be laid out for this portion of the project to be complete.
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