Sidebar: Green Schools: Learning as We Go
Green Features as Learning Opportunities
The Darrow School, a private boarding and day school in New Lebanon, New York, installed a Living Machine (see photo, top of article) to resolve some wastewater disposal problems. More significant than the direct environmental benefit, however, is the educational value to the school. Science classes at all the school’s levels, from 9th grade through 12th, use the facility extensively. The lower-level science classes learn to monitor water flows, graph the results, and analyze them statistically. Biology classes study the food web in the system. A stream ecology class studies the water in the system with the same tools they use to study the health of a natural stream—and are surprised to find that the effluent from the Living Machine is cleaner than the stream water! “The system has surpassed our expectations in terms of our ability to use it in our science classes,” says Lisa Riker, director of the Samson Environmental Center in which the Living Machine is housed. An added, unexpected, benefit involves the art classes. For example, in February, the greenhouse provides an opportunity for a watercolor class to paint tropical plants!
