CHIJ Coding for Sustainability 2025

CHIJ Environmental Science Club Programme - using code for real-world sustainability issues.

Chapter 4: 🌱 Eco-AI Projects

In this chapter, you'll apply what you've learned about AI vision to create three sustainability-focused projects using MIT Raise Playground. You'll explore hand tracking, face emotion detection, and image classification to build interactive applications that promote environmental awareness.

You'll create:

• 🖐 Five Fingers of Sustainability – Use hand tracking to visualize the "Five R's" of sustainability

• 😀 Eco-Emotion Meter – Connect facial expressions with environmental themes

• 🗑️ WasteWise AI – Train an AI model to identify compostable vs. non-compostable waste

These projects will help you understand how AI can be used as a powerful tool for environmental education and sustainable practices!

Project Platforms:

• 💻 Coding Platform: MIT Raise Playground: https://playground.raise.mit.edu/main/ 💻

• 🤖 Teachable Machine Model: teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/models/3H0_Xg5zF/

Project Handouts:

Training Dataset:

• 🖼 Download Image Dataset – Use these images to train your WasteWise AI model. 🖼

Remember:

• Save your projects to Google Drive so you can access them from any device

• Try using your WasteWise AI in the canteen to see how well it works in real life!

Chapter 3: 🤖 AI Vision

🤖 Project: Train Your Own AI – Image, Sound & Pose!

Ever wondered how a computer can tell if you're raising your hand, clapping, or holding up a peace sign?

In this lesson, you’ll train your own mini AI models using Google Teachable Machine. You’ll try out three types of AI:

 📸 Image – teach it to recognise hand signs like Rock, Paper, or Scissors
🎤 Audio – train it to respond to sounds or Gen Z slang like “Sheesh!” or “Slay!”
🕺 Pose – help it recognise cool selfie or K-pop poses using body tracking

< Google Teachable Machine : https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com >

www.scratch.mit.edu

Username: ninjascratcherXX
(replace XX with your assigned number)

 Password: codeninja1232

In this project, you will create a game where you control a cleaning robot that picks up trash items automatically. The challenge is to sort the waste correctly into three different bins.

Fruit and vegetables go in the compostable food waste bin

• Meat goes in the non-compostable food waste bin

• Containers (bottles, cartons) go in the non-food waste bin

You'll also learn to:

• Use broadcasts to send messages between sprites

• Create clones to make multiple copies of sprites

• Use conditional statements to check which bin the waste touches

• Use variables to keep track of score and waste

By the end of this project, you'll have built a fun game about proper waste sorting!

💡In this project, you'll:

1. Learn how much water you use in daily life

2. Get tips to reduce water waste at home

3. Answer questions about your water habits (showers, laundry, etc.)

4. See your estimated monthly water usage

🧠 This project also teaches you:

• How to use variables and math blocks

• How to check for valid input (so no one types "pikachu" 😄)