Strawbale Classroom
This classroom provides opportunities for Ball State students, K-12 students, the public and builders and developers to learn about building materials and concepts that are sustainable, produced at low embodied energy from local materials, consume less energy, integrate with the site’s productive and regenerative systems, and are affordable. It can also address how straw and plaster can eliminate health threatening paints, glues, and other toxins. It can also excite people that this alternative, sustainable building type that addresses P3 relationships can produce exciting buildings that fit with Midwest preferences.
Greenhouse
The greenhouse and its included solar aquatic system provide opportunities for Ball State students, K-12 students, the public and builders and developers to learn about passive energy and plant growth, passive energy harvesting, solar radiation, biological treatment of wastewater.
Constructed Wetlands
The project’s constructed wetlands provide opportunities for Ball State students and the adult public to learn about how natural wetland in general and constructed wetlands in particular can restore water quality. They can learn how these wetlands also save energy and enhance aesthetics. They can learn how constructed wetlands can interconnect with wastewater and washwater gardens, living fences and other water enhanced environments. Builders and developers can learn about environmentally-friendly, cost-effective, and easy to construct ways to convert wastewater into clean water, and the role that constructed wetlands play in this process. Kids can learn how natural processes clean the water and, in the process, also clean the air, produce organic soil, produce plant, and provide habitat for animals. They can also learn how people can use ecological models to clean water in environmentally healthy, visually interesting ways.
Strawbale as an Education Module
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