The twelve weeks
Every week on one page: its question, its lecture, its tutorial, what is assessed in it, and what you should be holding when it ends.
How to use this page
4 steps
Four steps. How a teaching week is put together, and what to carry between them.
Step 1 Choose the week you are in
Twelve weeks, each with its own overview page. The overview says what the week asks and what you should be holding when it ends — read that before the lecture.
Step 2 Each week has the same four pieces
An overview, a lecture with slides, a tutorial, and sometimes a quiz. Every page in a week carries the same row of links at the top, so you can move between them without coming back here.
Step 3 Deadlines are not the same as workload
The planner's first view shows when things are due. Its second view shows where the hours actually fall, which is earlier than the deadlines suggest — the assignments are built a few hours a week from week 1, not written at the end.
Step 4 Carry your output forward
Every tutorial names what it produces and where that output is used again. The chain runs from week 1's workbook through to the proposal, so a week skipped is a gap rather than a set of notes to catch up on.
One commission, twelve weeks. Each week answers one question about the client's home and leaves you holding one more piece of an assignment.
Weeks 1–6 — Understanding the systems
You meet the client and work through each candidate system — garden, mushrooms, insects, fish, preservation — far enough to know what it needs and what would have to be measured before anyone spent money on it. Every calculation in these weeks is a scoping estimate on published figures, not a claim about this house.
Week 7 — Submission and handover
Assignment 1 goes in, and the story jumps twelve fictional months. The specialist team hands back what a measurement year at your home found (Release B), and from here on your numbers come from those findings rather than from a scoping estimate.
Weeks 8–12 — Choosing and justifying the retrofit
With the measured year in hand you size, cost and compare the options, then argue for the one you recommend — the cheapest arrangement that meets the household's own targets, plus an honest case for any dollar spent beyond it.
The mid-semester break falls between weeks 5 and 6, from 29 March 2027 to 11 April 2027.
The semester at a glance
Deadlines and materials
Twelve teaching weeks, the mid-semester break after week 5, then the assessment period. Every marker is a link.
Scroll sideways to see every week, or read the list below.
- Week overview
- Lecture and slides
- Tutorial
- Quiz
- Assignment deadline
Break: 29 March 2027 to 11 April 2027. Tutorial checkpoints are one 20 % record with ten Friday deadlines, not ten separate assessments. This course's calendar is in 2027, so no "today" line is drawn.
The same thing as a list
- Week overview. Week 1 (Meet your client: household systems and evidence); Week 2 (Soil, plants and irrigation demand); Week 3 (Mushrooms: substrate, yield and what to measure); Week 4 (Insects: waste streams and conversion limits); Week 5 (Aquaponics: feed, fish and operating conditions); Week 6 (Preservation and assembling the measurement plan); Week 7 (Water sourcing and the specialist handover); Week 8 (Treatment, reuse and service requirements); Week 9 (Storage and seasonal reliability); Week 10 (Waste recovery and integrated balances); Week 11 (Sanitation, nutrient limits and choosing between options); Week 12 (Integration and the investment recommendation)
- Lecture and slides. Lecture 1 (Meet your client: household systems and evidence — with slides); Lecture 2 (Soil, plants and irrigation demand — with slides); Lecture 3 (Mushrooms: substrate, yield and what to measure — with slides); Lecture 4 (Insects: waste streams and conversion limits — with slides); Lecture 5 (Aquaponics: feed, fish and operating conditions — with slides); Lecture 6 (Preservation and assembling the measurement plan — with slides); Lecture 7 (Water sourcing and the specialist handover — with slides); Lecture 8 (Treatment, reuse and service requirements — with slides); Lecture 9 (Storage and seasonal reliability — with slides); Lecture 10 (Waste recovery and integrated balances — with slides); Lecture 11 (Sanitation, nutrient limits and choosing between options — with slides); Lecture 12 (Integration and the investment recommendation — with slides)
- Tutorial. Tutorial 1 (Ungraded practice); Tutorial 2 (Checkpoint 1 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 3 (Checkpoint 2 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 4 (Checkpoint 3 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 5 (Checkpoint 4 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 6 (Checkpoint 5 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 7 (Checkpoint 6 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 8 (Checkpoint 7 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 9 (Checkpoint 8 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 10 (Checkpoint 9 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 11 (Checkpoint 10 of 10, 2 % — due 5 pm Friday); Tutorial 12 (Ungraded practice)
- Quiz. Quiz 1 (4 % — 2027-03-11); Quiz 2 (4 % — 2027-03-25); Quiz 3 (4 % — 2027-04-29); Quiz 4 (4 % — 2027-05-13); Quiz 5 (4 % — 2027-05-27)
- Assignment deadline. Household Resilience Investment Proposal (40 % — 2027-06-18); Year-long Measurement Programme (20 % — 2027-04-23)
Suggested weekly effort
An illustrative planning guide, not observed student data, not required attendance and not a guarantee. It is drawn to encourage steady weekly work rather than a fortnight of panic. 90 hours across the twelve teaching weeks, plus 4 in the assessment period — 94 in total.
Hours on the vertical axis, one bar per teaching week. Scroll sideways if it is cut off.
- Lecture and notes — The lecture, its slides, and reading the week's notes afterwards
- Tutorial — The session itself. Tidying and submitting the checkpoint is inside this, not extra
- Preparation and quiz — Preparing for the tutorial. In a quiz week, sitting the quiz is inside this, not extra
- Assignment 1 — The measurement programme, built a few hours a week from week 3
- Assignment 2 — The investment proposal, built from week 7's handover onwards
No compulsory work in the mid-semester break. Catching up there is optional and sits outside these totals. A separate allowance for final review, drawing and submission after teaching ends — one block of four hours, not four hours a week.
The same thing as a table
| Week | Lecture and notes | Tutorial | Preparation and quiz | Assignment 1 | Assignment 2 | Total | Assignment milestone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 5 | Orientation and tutorial practice only; no assignment work scheduled |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 5 | Orientation and tutorial practice only; no assignment work scheduled |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | — | 8 | Substrate balance, and what would have to be measured to trust it |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | — | 8 | Waste-stream rows added to the register |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | — | 8 | Biological operating conditions added as measurement rows |
| 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | — | 8 | QA, safety and access; the register costed against the allowance |
| 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | Both cross-checks, final costing, submission; then Findings read; the baseline written down |
| 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | Treatment and reuse; service requirements for each end use |
| 9 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | Storage sized, saturation found, dry year run |
| 10 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | Waste balance closed; recovery options costed |
| 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | Three options built and compared; dominated ones struck out |
| 12 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | Recommendation drafted, uncertainty listed, skeleton assembled |
| Assessment period | — | — | — | — | 4 | 4 | Final review, drawing and submission |
| Total | 24 | 24 | 12 | 14 | 20 | 94 | — |
Week by week
Week 1Meet your client: household systems and evidence
What crosses this fence line in a year, and how much of it nobody has actually measured.
Lecture. What crosses the fence line. Tutorial. Building your client evidence workbook.
You leave with: A site sheet with twelve rows of station climate data, every value sourced or labelled a course assumption.
Week 2Soil, plants and irrigation demand
Why water rather than sunlight decides how much of the garden is worth planting.
Lecture. Water is the yield limit, not sunlight. Tutorial. The irrigation demand curve.
You leave with: A twelve-row irrigation demand curve in kilolitres, and a planted area you can defend on water rather than on ambition.
Week 3Mushrooms: substrate, yield and what to measure
What a household fruiting operation really contributes, and where the substrate goes afterwards.
Lecture. Mushrooms are a converter, not a crop. Tutorial. Substrate in, substrate out.
You leave with: A substrate mass balance with both arrows drawn: substrate in, mushrooms out, spent substrate to soil and compost.
Week 4Insects: waste streams and conversion limits
How much of the fish feed a household's own scraps can actually cover.
Lecture. The scraps-to-larvae-to-fish loop does not close. Tutorial. Sizing the insect unit against a scrap stream.
You leave with: A larval yield derived from your household's waste stream, with the imported share of fish feed stated on the diagram.
Week 5Aquaponics: feed, fish and operating conditions
Sizing a system from its feed, and finding out what you are allowed to keep in it.
Lecture. Which fish you may keep, and for how many months. Tutorial. Species, months and the approval you need.
You leave with: A grow bed sized from the feed-rate ratio, a species choice with its temperature band, and the approval pathway named.
Week 6Preservation and assembling the measurement plan
Moving the glut into the trough, then turning six weeks of unknowns into a measurement programme.
Lecture. Getting March's surplus to August. Tutorial. Sizing preservation, then assembling Assignment 1.
You leave with: A sized preservation store, and a draft measurement plan in which every instrument answers a named decision.
Week 7Water sourcing and the specialist handover
What a roof delivers month by month — and the week the measured year comes back.
Lecture. What a roof can actually deliver. Tutorial. The supply curve, and submitting Assignment 1.
You leave with: A monthly supply curve laid over week 2's demand curve, on the same axis and in the same units.
Week 8Treatment, reuse and service requirements
What each barrier removes, expressed as a number somebody else could check.
Lecture. Log reductions, not reassurance. Tutorial. Drawing the treatment train.
You leave with: A barrier sequence with a sourced log reduction on each barrier and its running energy costed.
Week 9Storage and seasonal reliability
What size store, what it costs, and the month it still runs dry.
Lecture. The month the tank runs dry. Tutorial. Running the tank balance, then breaking it.
You leave with: A sized store with its saturation point identified, re-run against the dry year with the first failure named.
Week 10Waste recovery and integrated balances
Where every organic stream goes, and whether the balance closes when you add it up.
Lecture. Every stream goes somewhere. Tutorial. Closing the mass balance.
You leave with: A closed dry-matter balance in which every organic stream has a destination and every loss term is stated.
Week 11Sanitation, nutrient limits and choosing between options
The nitrogen the garden cannot absorb, and how to choose between the alternatives.
Lecture. The nitrogen has nowhere to go. Tutorial. Where the nitrogen goes, and choosing between the options.
You leave with: A nitrogen balance with a destination for the surplus, and an options grid with the dominated options marked.
Week 12Integration and the investment recommendation
Putting eleven sized subsystems into one model and finding out which gives way first.
Lecture. What fails first. Tutorial. Assembly, and the failure you cannot design away.
You leave with: A whole-system model that passes both hard constraints, plus the capstone skeleton and an uncertainty list.