THE MISSION
CHAPTER 3: The Mission
"Our students will DESIGN and BUILD an inhabitable, safe, and sustainable city in waters off the coast of San Diego, below the surface of the Pacific Ocean."
DESIGN
Vida Azul is a DESIGN project and we can teach that right now! It's right there in your Career Technical Education (CTE) curriculum.
DESIGN is an element of engineering and DESIGN THINKING is already taught in elementary, middle and high schools across America and around the world. Kids of any age, any grade, in any community, with or without resources, can imagine a new product design concept. They don't need anyone's permission. It costs nothing. It's a low-risk activity. There is no one right answer.
Ask them to design their own autonomous drone. Design their own I-Phone. Design a garden tool that cuts the lawn in record time. Design a better school desk or a better wallet or better bike. Design your dream home for the planet Mars.
Ask them to design an underwater city, and the watercraft they would pilot to get there.
From Venngage
THE QUESTIONS
What would your underwater city look like? • Where will it be located? • What are the logistical challenges of building in deep water? • What building materials will you use? • What environmental issues will have to be addressed? • How will you protect and enhance all ecosystems in or around the building site? • What are some key architectural features of your community? • What innovations do you envision? • What is your ideas for producing food and fresh water-- and for managing waste? What are the building timelines? • Who is responsible for completing which parts? • Is the project sustainable? • What new energy sources can you model? • What are your safety features? • Who would even want to live under water?
"WHAT IF..."
What if we engage our youth in the battle to recover the ocean?
What if high school students were equipped to design an underwater, human community as an artificial reef?
What if their city was also designed to stimulate the growth of fisheries, reef recovery, and kelp forest management?
What if they learned how to capture and sequester carbon, create their own fresh water supply, maintain ambient water temperatures and Ph balance for thousands of miles in every direction?
What if they could neutralize toxic elements pouring into the sea, generate alternative energy sources, and repurpose waste.
What if they could rid the waters of the scourge of plastics?
It's all science fiction until it is actually happening-- and these developments are occurring, right now, all over the world!
THE PROCESS
Vida Azul is not a race. It is a process that features 5 Phases: each with deliverable goals and work products:
• PHASE 1: Our students will design their city and capture their work in a Master Construction Plan.
• PHASE 2: Our students will create a Business Plan that amplifies the vision and values of the Vida Azul Maritime Construction Company; then proceeds to establish that company as a legal, incorporated, student-owned enterprise.
• PHASE 3: Our students will articulate a Financial Plan and funding source that is structured to bring the vision of Vida Azu to fruition.
• PHASE 4: Our students will utilize the expertise of former program participants who are now working in service of the Blue Economy, to seek and obtain authorizations from local, state and federal agencies to build Vida Azul.
• PHASE 5: Ours students will utilize their resources and expertise in implementing the Project Management Plan, delivering Vida Azul on time, on budget, and built to code.
It might take a hundred years to build Vida Azul, but every day we would inspire children to become entrepreneurs, researchers, activists...and better stewards of the ocean than the generations that preceded them.
CHAPTER 1: The Interview
"Humanity has always advanced on the strength of our collective ideas—innovations that evolve from one generation to the next. A hundred years ago there was a moonshot. Today we have colonies on Mars. We’ve proven that, as a species, we can live just about anywhere. The real question is: Once humans show up, can the environment survive? Vida Azul is about improving humanity by first enhancing our living Earth. That’s the ethos of Blue Life."
–Flora Esperanza,