You are never too young to learn about first-time home buying, and some grade 7 students in Moose Jaw put their knowledge to the test.  

In collaboration with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, the Western Development Museum played host to several 7th-grade classes this month. The goal was to teach them about energy efficiency in homes. These organizations have been offering this workshop for several years, but the program was put on hold due to the pandemic.  

Students were led through six different stations, teaching them about net-zero homes, including how to build one from scratch and how to make an existing home more energy-efficient. The stations talk about different building materials, solar energy, water conservation, and lighting and appliances.  

Karla Rasmussen, Education and Public Programs Coordinator at the museum said the program is beneficial for the students. "The neat thing about this program is after they have done the stations, they go through the museum galleries and do a scavenger hunt," says Rasmussen. 

She says the students go in-depth by looking at the older buildings on display. "They take a look at how thick the walls are. They try to figure out what the windows are made out of, and they guess what kind of insulation was used during the building process." 

Rasmussen says having an energy-efficient home has always been important in the province. "Having a place that keeps the cold out in winter and keeps the heat out in the summertime could have been a matter of life and death for indigenous people and early settlers," Rasmussen says we have learned a lot in the past several hundred years, especially when it comes to materials used for building.