The Oasis

Hello! My name is Ava and I'm 13 years old. This project is designed to model an eco-friendly and sustainable home in a semi-arid desert biome. A semi-arid climate is when it only rains a few inches per year, but not as dry as a regular desert. The proposed location of my sustainable home is in the Sonoran Desert in Southern Arizona. Considering the concerns and scientific proof of global warming and climate change, this project shows how we can create sustainable living environments without permanently damaging our planet. My sustainable home model was built using recyclable materials and craft supplies I had lying around.

• Cardboard
• Paper straws
• Aluminum foil
• Recyclable small plastic cups (Keurig cups)
• Clear flexible plastic (can be found on toy packaging and other types of packaging) or Saran wrap
• Scissors or a precision knife
• Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
• Paint colors of your choice and paintbrush

After finding a box that is the size of your choice, cut through the center of your box using a precision knife. This will separate the bottom and top levels of the house. With the flapps on the open side of the box, take two sides that are facing each other and glue them to the other two flapps (shown in the picture) with a hot glue gun. After it is glued together you can cut off the excess cardboard to get a roof shape.

I traced out where the door and windows would go and cut them out with a precision knife. The size of your box may vary how many windows you can put. I was able to fit 6, one and a half wide windows on a 13 inch wide side. MAKE SURE TO KEEP THE CUTOUTS!! The cutouts are going to be used in a future step so don't throw them away.

Make sure your suface is protected before you start painting. Pour the paint color(s) of your choice onto a paint pallet or plate. The color I painted my house was grey mixed with some brown. Then grab your paint brush and paint both layers of the house. After it dries take a large piece of cardboard and glue the house onto the cardboard. That will be our ground and show the difference between the above ground and below ground levels of the house.

We need some way to get the well water and rain collection water through the house. Figure out how long you need your straws by putting them up against one of the side corners of your house. Cut where the wall and roof of your cardboard house meet. Repeat this process to be able to run the straws on all of the sides of the house. Don't forget to do the underground layer too. Make sure to also paint some extra because you will need them in a future step. With whatever paint color you want, paint the cut paper straws using your paintbrush.

Remember how I said to keep the excess cardboard from the windows? Well we're going to use them to make the solar panels. Collect all of the window cuttings and your aluminum foil. Then cut a rectangle of the foil that is bigger than cardboard cutting. Wrap the cardboard piece how it is shown in the pictures.

The paint on your cardboard house should be dry now so lets make the windows look more realistic. Cut your clear flexible plastic or Saran Wrap to fit the whole wall. Once it's cut, put glue on all the corners of the plastic using your hot glue gun. Place the clear plastic on the inside of your house so you cant see the glue lines from the outside. Repeat these steps for the rest of the walls.

On the sides of the roof right above the windows, use your hot glue gun to glue on the solar panels we made in a previous step. Don't put the panels on the flat walls though (the door side and across from the door side). I also added a small solar panel right above the door to act as a door cover. Make sure you still have extras because in the next step we are going to use them.

With some extra cardboard, cut a rectangle that is slightly bigger than the top opening on the roof. With soome other cardboard, cut pieces to be the sides like shown in the picture. Hot glue on the small sides you just cut onto the larger rectangle. Next paint the inside and outside of the small box you have just made with the color(s) of your choosing. Take some of the extra painted paper straws and glue them on the corners of your small box. Then take your small recycled cups and the hot glue gun and make a hole on the bottoms of them. The heat from the hot glue gun tip will make holes in the plastic cups so you are able to slide them onto the paper straws you just glued down. EXTRA: To make a little cover on your rooftop garden, take four painted paper straws and cut them so two are a little longer than the other two so when you make the cover, it will be at a slight angle. Glue the straws to a piece of cardboard and glue the whole straw and cardboard structure to the small box garden. Add some of the extra solar panels to the top of your cover. (Finished product in picture.)

With the colors green, dark brown, and light brown splotch paint all over the large piece of cardboard so that it looks like the ground. You dont have to sploch the paint onto the cardboard and just brush it on, but if you want it to have texture and look more realistic I suggest using the sploch method.

First trace a shape of a cactus onto thin cardboard and cut it out. Next paint the cactus green. You can also do multiple different greens to have more of a variety of cacti. To make the thorns, take something thin, such as the side of a piece of plastic or a tiny painbrush. Dip it in white paint and make little strokes. You can also make a small flower to glue onto your cactus. After you are done painting your cacti, add a small triangle of cardboard so it can stand freely. (and so you can use it on other projects)

Put all the pieces together and now you have your very own model of a sustainable home!