Keeping Warm

People in different countries often have different ways of keeping houses warm.

Even in the developed world (which includes countries in Europe and North America) there are some interesting ways of heating and insulating houses. In developing countries, or where people like to stick to traditional home-building methods, there are even more ideas being used.

What do you need to find out?

You could find out:

• what building materials and fuels are used in other countries, and why people use those materials

• how the designs and materials used for homes in other countries help to keep people warm – try to explain the science involved

• where in the world people need to build homes for warmth.

Where are you going to find your information?

You could try:

• looking in Atlases or geography text books, which provide a lot of information

• looking in encyclopaedias in your school or local library

• searching the Internet. You could try key words like ‘Innuit’, ‘igloo’, ‘Samui’, etc.

How are you going to present your information?

You could:

• design a wall display

• write an illustrated report

• work in a group to produce a project folder

• give a short talk to the rest of the class, telling them what you have found out, or make a PowerPoint presentation

• design a website to present your findings.