Leed Versus Breeam Analysis Construction Essay

Leed Versus Breeam Analysis Construction Essay Displaying a green certificate is becoming more and more important for organisations as the communities they operate in are becoming more and more sustainably aware. Environmental assessment of buildings is nothing new, BREEAM was the first national scheme introduced in 1990 but has since expanded, going from a small 19-page BRE report with 27 credits available, to a substantial 350-page technical guide with 105 credits BREEAM has conquered the UK Market for almost 20 years. But now has stiff competition from the US Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). In 1998 the US Green Building Council launched its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). BREEAM and LEED are now the main methods currently competing for business in the UK. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Is an internationally recognized green building certification system,  providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts (USGBC, 2008). Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. It was recently introduced into the UK as a solution to some of the downfalls of current rating systems. In the UK, interest in LEED is growing. The Green Building Certification Institutes website records 66 LEED Accredited Professionals in the UK. This is the fifth highest national total behind the US, Canada, UAE and China (BSRIA, 2009). LEED is flexible enough to apply to all building types especially commercial. It works throughout the building lifecycle first assessment is completed at the design and construction stage then the second is the operations and maintenance stage, then finally any tenant fit out, and significant retrofit. However, the LEED design can miss many green opportunities that fall outside the stringent LEED criteria. One problem with the LEED method of sustainable design is that it can foster an all-or-nothing attitude toward this pursuit. LEED audits have become a common activity during schematic design. All too often, however, green design is abandoned entirely once this audit shows a project falling short of the number of points required for LEED certification (Environmental Outlook, 2002). Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM Is the foremost method of assessing the environmental performance of new and existing buildings both in the UK and worldwide. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable development and covers virtually all aspects of the design. (BREEAM, 2002) Achieving a BREEAM rating is ever more becoming a requirement of Funding Bodies and Planning Authorities. It also demonstrates a commitment to socially responsible development and creating sustainable and healthy environments in which current and future generations are to live and work. (BREEAM, 2002) Assessments are carried out at two stages; Firstly, during the Design Stage and then at Post Construction Review Stage. Following the Post Construction Stage Assessment, the Client is provided with a BREEAM Certificate directly by the BRE. BREEAM Ratings are awarded in five categories: pass, good, very good, excellent and outstanding. The BREEAM process will help to encourage better standards with commercial developments, but it should be done in a way that clearly acknowledges the complete development cycle for different options rather than the factory gate figure alone. Future strategies for BREEAM will need to see a general alignment with government carbon reduction and sustainability plans. BREEAM would then be more integrated into legislation so that new buildings are built with sustainability embedded throughout the complete process. These two methods lack similarities when it comes to the process of qualifications. BREEAM has trained assessors who assess the evidence against the credit criteria and report it to the BRE, who validate the assessment and issue the certificate. While LEED does not require training, there is a credit available if an accredited professional (AP) is used. (James Parker 2009) Table The role of the AP is to help gather the evidence and advise the client. The evidence is then submitted to the USGBC which does the assessment and issues the certificate. Both schemes share common components see Table 1. Early involvement of the assessor or AP at the design stage is beneficial to the project and the final rating. Both schemes drive the market to improve building design. The judging criteria also keep pace with legislative developments and current best practice. James Parker author of BREEAM vs LEED (2009) has issued findings on buildings which have achieved both a BREEAM and a LEED rating his findings were as follows. The US-GBC also lists ten UK buildings as being registered for one of the LEED schemes. At the time of writing, the list shows that only one UK building the Herman Miller HQ in Cheltenham as having gained a LEED rating. This building also had a BREEAM assessment carried out under the offices 2006 scheme, under which it was awarded an excellent rating. Another building known to have both a BREEAM and a LEED rating is the Van de Kamp Bakery, at Los Angeles City College. The bakery gained a certified LEED rating and a Good BREEAM 2005 rating (James Parker, 2009). James Parkers findings provide the opinion that BREEAM issues a higher rating for the same building in both the US and the UK. However it would be more precise to compare LEED with BREEAM 2008, as the latter now has a compulsory post-construction review, this has been an item on the objective list for LEED for a while. Previous BREEAM schemes only assessed buildings at a design stage. Eszter Gulacsy, a sustainability consultant from MTT/Sustain has stated that whilst BREEAM is more educational and more rigorous LEED is far simpler in its approach, BREEAM is more relevant in the UK as it uses UK policies, however LEED can sit alongside as part of a global corporate policy, she says. Gulacsy also believes that the driver for LEED in the UK is often the clients global corporate policy or the needs for global tenants. This makes a lot of sense, companies that are multi-national would find it much easier if their sustainable commitments and rating procedure were dealt with in the same way but before the introduction on LEED into the UK, multi-national companies had to use BREEAM in the UK and perhaps LEED elsewhere. For example Germany-based Siemens now uses LEED for all its new buildings worldwide, several of these are now located in Europe. BREEAMs director, Martin Townsend states that We have not been shy about selling BREEAM across the globe. BREEAM International grew out of the BREEAM Bespoke scheme. BREEAM Europe and BREEAM Gulf are similar money-earners. But going global brings BREEAM head-to-head with its rival LEED. Ironically, we are seeking ways of collaborative working with the US LEED system. If an American bank wants to build over here, it understands about LEED and wants the building built to that standard. Thats fine, but it might not translate that well into the UK climatic environment, our building legislation or the way that building operates. Providing a client with dual certification has to be a good way of sharing that information. (Building Design, 2009) But Gulacsy warns Europe thinks that LEED is an easy win, but it isnt if the paperwork and evidence is not in place. There is a danger of complacency, So would a merging of the two competing systems be seen as desirable? Clearly, a one-size-fits-all assessment method would be complicated to implement on a global basis as problems that face one country or region might not be issues in others therefore these need to be ranked accordingly for example water efficiency is a major issue in Dubai and Australia, but not in England or Ireland. LEED is dominated by the American ASHRAE standards (an international organization that establishes standards for the uniform testing and rating of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment) (EPA, 2004). BREEAM takes its cue from European and UK legislation. The regional versions of both schemes flow from those antecedents. BREEAM Gulf has been adapted for the local market. Gone are the Good, Very Good, and Excellent ratings, and in comes star ratings. The weightings are changed so that water is the key issue, rather than energy as in the standard UK schemes. In addition to the CIBSE guidance being the measure for certain credits, ASHRAE and other standards are also now referenced in BREEAM Gulf. BREEAM has long been able to adapt to local contexts. With BREEAM Bespoke, for example, the assessor can work with BRE to develop assessment criteria specially tailored to a building where it doesnt fit neatly into one of the existing schemes. Stephen Kennett, (2008) . It is stated that LEED has not been shaped with this high level of flexibility and it is not run this way. LEED is fixed to the ASHRAE standards and the US way of thinking (for example, credits are awarded for having enough car parking spaces, rather than minimising them as in BREEAM). There are also differences in the way LEED calculates credits. They are generally linked to the US Dollar, which means that if the exchange rate is unfavourable, then the buildings rating could suffer (James Parker, 2009). There is a lot of hype about the battle between BREEAM and LEED in the UK, but this seems to be unfounded. Both seem happy to co-exist and each has their niche areas or countries. They are even borrowing each others ideas as they grow. BREEAM will probably always come out on top in the UK, simply because it is imbedded in the system. Government departments require BREEAM ratings of all their buildings; most local authorities require BREEAM as part of planning approval for developments over a certain size. Once projects are underway that aim to be zero carbon, the likes of BREEAM or LEED may have developed to become the global default methods of assessment. (James Parker 2009)

Classroom’s learning environment Essay

1.1 Many things combine to create a classroom’s learning environment. This can be on an individual or environmental factor impacting positive or negative on learning, efficient or inefficient. Much of this depends on the plans you have in place to deal with situations that affect this environment. The list below looks at each of these things in order to help teachers better understand how to ensure that they are creating a positive learning environment for all students and eliminate negativity. Teacher Behaviors The first factor a teacher should set is his tone for the classroom setting. As a teacher you should be even-tempered, fair with your students, and have a rule enforcement that which will set a high standard for your classroom. Another example is, Are you humorous? Are you able to take a joke? Are you sarcastic? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? All of these and other personal characteristics will shine through in your classroom and affect the learning environment. Student Ownership The second factor is when displaying of essays, poems, projects, and exams dominate the walls, there is student ownership of the room. When they look around and see their own writing and thinking, or posters they certainly experience a higher level of comfort because they see that they as students created them. Classroom Setup The first environmental factor here is the room layout. A ‘ Horseshoe’ or ‘U’ shape environment allows eye contact with the teacher and participate amongst the students and room layout should not just be set up by the number of people required, but by the event. The key factors is where is the centre of attention. Do people need to interact with each other. Do you want people in groups without having to move them around. The teacher is able to move easily with learners, the students are able to the demonstration. However, interaction and teamwork are much easier in a learning environment where students sit together. Aspects of Aging on Learning Adult learners have already been partly educated through life experiences. Adults have more experiences, different kinds of experiences, and that these experiences are organized differently. . According to Knowles (1980), 1 adults derive much of their self- identity from their past experiences. In that respect, they are much different from youths who tend to view themselves largely from external sources. Because of this factor, adult learners place a great deal of value on their experiences and if they cannot use those experiences, or, if those experiences are rejected, it may feel similar to being rejected as an individual. Related to this is the fear of failure that an adult learner may bring to the classroom, particularly if this is a new environment where they might fear further rejection from their peer group (Kennedy, 2003) 2 or their teacher. 1.2 Create a positive learning environment Build self-esteem and self-efficacy Students’ determination and belief that they can achieve their goals are important factors in their persistence in ongoing learning. Adult learners may have negative feelings about themselves due to failure experienced in their lives, due to dropping out of school, losing a job, or not being able to read or write well enough to complete a job application or read to their children . Ensure that students experience success at their first meeting so the first experience is a positive one. It may be appropriate to start with material that is slightly below the student’s level. Be patient! Patience is an extremely important characteristic for any teacher or tutor of adults. Adults can often take a longer time in the learning process because of various learning barriers, but this does not mean they aren’t motivated to learn. Accept your student as he/she is and respect his/her values even if they differ from yours. Believe in your student and he/she will begin to believe in him/herself. Memorize the names of all your students within the first week of instruction. Use students’ names frequently. If your students are English learners, learn a few key phrases in their native languages to model that it is acceptable to struggle with pronunciation and language learning Identified need A lesson plan is the teacher’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting. Then, you can design appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates these three key components: Objectives for student learning Teaching/learning activities Strategies to check student understanding Specifying concrete for student learning will help you determine the kinds of teaching and learning activities you will use in class, while those activities will define how you will check whether the learning objectives have been met. Principles of adult learning The Manual of Learning Styles, by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1992). Provides an introduction to learning styles with advice on how to administer and interpret ‘The Learning Styles Questionnaire. Learning styles can be influenced by past experiences, education, work and the learning situation. It is important to recognise that they are not fixed but may be adapted according to context and what is being learned. Nevertheless most people still favour one style of learning. Knowles identified the six principles of adult learning outlined below. Adults are internally motivated and self-directed Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences Adults are goal oriented Adults are relevancy oriented Adults are practical Adult learners like to be respected Part of being an effective educator involves understanding how adults learn  best (Lieb,1991). Andragogy (adult learning) is a theory that holds a set of assumptions about how adults learn. Andragogy emphasises the value of the process of learning. It uses approaches to learning that are problem-based and collaborative rather than didactic, and also emphasises more equality between the teacher and learner. Andragogy as a study of adult learning originated in Europe in 1950’s and was then pioneered as a theory and model of adult learning from the 1970’s by Malcolm Knowles an American practitioner and theorist of adult education, who defined andragogy as â€Å"the art and science of helping adults learn† (Zmeyov 1998; Fidishun 2000). Resource availability Equipment/Materials:Whiteboard, Smart board, PowerPoint, Flip chart, Laptop, Marker pens, OHP, previously created resources, and hand outs Appropriate assessment methods. Defining Formative and Summative Assessments The terms â€Å"formative† and â€Å"summative† do not have to be difficult, yet the definitions have become confusing in the past few years. This is especially true for formative assessment. In a balanced assessment system, both summative and formative assessments are an integral part of information gathering. Depend too much on one or the other and the reality of student achievement in your classroom becomes unclear. Steps for preparing a lesson plan Outlining learning objectives The first step is to determine what I needed the students to learn and be able to do at the end of class. To specify my objectives for student learning I questioned myself. Firstly what is the topic of the lesson? Secondly what do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class? Thirdly what do I want them to take away from this particular lesson? Managing class time and accomplishing the more important learning objectives in case I am pressed for time. I considered these questions. What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to  grasp and apply? Why are they important? If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted? And conversely, which ones could I skip if pressed for time? The second step is to develop the introduction in order of importance, using specific activities so that students can gain the knowledge and apply what they have learned. There will be a diverse body of students with different academic and personal experience, they may be already familiar with the topic. Presenting the lesson plan, to let my students know what they will be learning and doing in class I engaged with them and on track. Shared my lesson plan by writing a brief agenda on the board telling students explicitly what they will be learning and doing in class. Outlined on the board and gave out hand outs as their learning objectives for the class. Time can help students not only remember better but also follow the presentation and class activities. Visible agenda on the board will also help me and students stay on track. The first thing you can do is ask a question to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly, their preconceived ideas. For Example: How many of you have heard of Meditation? What can you share or experienced. If there was enough time prior to presentation date I would have had a chance to gather background information from the students via electronic survey or asking them to write comments, this additional information allows one to deliver, shape the introduction, learning activities and familiarise with the topic and I can then have a sense of what to focus on. The introduction topic must be stimulating, interesting and encourage thinking. To engage students I used a variety of approaches. Whilst introducing the topic mentally I began to check whether students know anything about the topic or have any preconceived ideas about it. What are some of the commonly held ideas or misconceptions about this topic meditation that students might be familiar with. What will I do to introduce  the topic? Planning the specific learning activities in the main body of the lesson. I prepared several different ways of explaining the material to catch the attention of more students and appeal to different learning styles, by giving out the hand outs, For Example: I talked about a personal incident in Meditation, an historical event, thought provoking dilemma, real world examples, a short music play, pictures to visualise, a statue to show posture in Mediation, a candle lit, quotes to probe questions. I began mentally estimating how much time I will spend on each examples and activities. Built in time for extended explanation or discussion, but quickly moved on to different applications or problems. I thought of questions such as What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way? How can I engage students in the topic? What are some relevant real life examples, analogies or situations that can help students gain knowledge on the topic? What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better? Plan to check for understanding, check to see student understanding, how do I know the students are learning. Writing them down, paraphrasing them so that you can ask the question in a different style. Deciding on whether you want students to respond orally or writing. As a conclusion I should go over the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. This can be done in a number of ways. For Example by saying, Today we talked about†¦.? as a student to summarize them or get them to write down on a piece of paper the main points covered. Reflecting on my lesson plan I found that after delivering my lesson plan it came across I could have been outstanding at delivering my plan if I had arranged most of my plan with a beginners, intermediate and advanced levels and the group did not get much time to do a group exercise. However this did not discourage me but instead it has encouraged me to reflect on what worked well and why, what I could  have done differently, identifying successful and less successful class time. I thought I shall use more resources such as students feedback, peer observation, viewing a videotape of my teaching and consultation with my tutor. As a reflection this assignment provided me with a general outline of my teaching goals learning objectives and means to accomplish them. It has become a reminder of what I want to do and how I want to do it. In my opinion a productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and the teacher learn from each other.

Lawrence Kohlberg’s Research

It is true that the research of Lawrence Kohlberg was focused around the concept of moral reasoning, which also can be called moral development (Answer 1). Lawrence Kohlberg was a known American specialist in psychiatry, who was interested in problems of moral development: moral judgments and moral choices. He is famous for his long-term experiments with young children (some of them lasted more than 20 years), during which Kohlberg studied the development of moral judgments and moral choices of the children. As a result, in 1981the theory of moral development was created. According to the findings of the specialist, there are six stages of moral development, which can be grouped into three different levels: (1) pre-conventional morality, which includes two sub-stages: (a) punishment-obedience orientation, and (b) instrumental relativist orientation; (2) conventional morality, which includes two sub-stages: (a) good boy-good girl orientation, and (b) instrumental relativist orientation; and (3) post-conventional morality, which includes the following sub-stages: (a) social contract orientation, and (b) universal ethical principle orientation (Wong, 2000). Therefore, during the process of moral development, every individual gradually passes through all these six stages. At that Kohlberg was underlining that not every adult individual can reach the highest stage in his/her moral development. Besides, not every time real behavior of an individual was correspondent to the achieved stage of moral development. This theory was criticized and the opponents of Kohlberg’s scientific conclusions pointed on several drawbacks of this research. In particular, the fact that all the experiments were made with male children is considered to be a serious disadvantage. References Wong, A. S. (2000, September). Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development. Blessed to Be Blessing. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from: ;http://www.vtaide.com/blessing/Kohlberg.htm ;.

Infants First Words Essay - 1906 Words

Infants First Words The development of language is one of a child’s most natural and impressive undertakings. Our communication skills set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, and they’re also what bring us together with each other. Babies are born without language, but all children learn the rules of language fairly early on and without formal teaching, how does this happen? In the first years of life, most children learn speech and language, the uniquely human skills they will use to communicate with other people. The developments of speech and language skills are two different, yet linked processes. Speech is producing the sounds that make up words the physical act of†¦show more content†¦Mehler et al. 1994 has shown that newborn infants can also differentiate the language they have heard in the womb from different languages. Experiments carried out with babies have demonstrated that they prefer their native language. The speech that babies hear while still in the womb biases their later language perception; newborns prefer their own mothers’ voice, (Mehler and Dupoux, 1994) their native language, and perhaps even familiar voices from television shows, and all because of a few weeks of muffled language experience in the womb. But while pre-natal experience is concerned with the more universal musical quality of speech, the pitch intonation and stress patterns of the mother’s voice have a greater effect of the child after birth. Now every vowel and consonant is crucial to the eventual understanding and production of language. By approximately 4 to 6months babies start to make many more sounds. At this stage prosodic cues are used to identify word boundaries. This is what enables infants to separate word beginnings and ends and also different voices and languages. Syllable stress is a prosodic cue that is used; English words have most stress on the first syllable also a concept known as transitional probability is used, this being the probability of certain syllables appearing together. AShow MoreRelatedPhonological Development in Children1336 Words   |  6 Pagesacquire knowledge of the phonological forms of words and phrases of their native language and must learn the articulatory and phonatory movements needed to produce these words and phrases in an adult-like manner. Children learn their phonological system of native language even since as young infant. They first year of an infant’s life which is before they can utter their first word are known as prelinguistic stage. Children do not utter their first word until they are about one year old. 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