This section review Phase I of the EPA P3 Award project entitled “Enhanced Sustainability through Straw-Bale Construction: Education-Research Building Demonstrating How to Live Sustainably in the Midwest”. Phase I. Work was produced in the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters; and presented in the April 24-25, 2007 Environmental Protection Agency's National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, D.C. This section is organized into three parts:

• The Big Picture reviews the project context and establishes its potential to change peoples’ perception of the relation of built environments, people, prosperity and the planet. It reviews Ball State’s history of sustainability leadership and current efforts to take that leadership to the next level. It reviews the Land Design Institute, its global education for sustainability networking, and proposed LandLab as Midwest regional lab in a global network and as a resource-balancing and eco-balance design^TM laboratory. It introduces the strawbale project as pilot project of a resource balance site management system and ecobalance designTM laboratory.

• Strawbale Learning Module- EPA P3 Student Design Competition Phase I reviews key environmental issues and built environment challenges. It reviews the student’s design of the strawbale built-site (building and landscape) as integral component of the site’s regenerative systems. It presents the design of the built-site as a water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape system; and reviews each sub-system. It shows students at work constructing the building component of the built-site system. It includes initial project assessments including ecological footprinting of its strawbale materials, initial assessment of carbon balance, and informal LEED Gold building assessment.

• The Built-site as Educational Module shows how the module will immerse students in integrated physical and digital learning environments (field site, strawbale building, regenerative landscapes, major future environmental education center building, and global education for sustainability network) to maximize learning about relationships among built sites, people, prosperity, and the planet. It shows how the module can be used to raise understanding of P3 relationships in the diverse communities served by BSU (higher education, K-12 learners, adult learners, and builders and developers). It reviews zones of the built-site (strawbale building, greenhouse, constructed wetland) as P3 learning environments. It reviews initial scheduling of the learning module to optimize learning in these diverse audiences.

The Big Picture