Rural schoolhouse designed to be in tune with nature

ROCA, Neb. -- Work is underway to build Nebraska's first wind- and solar-powered school.

About two dozen school staff, parents, friends and other volunteers insulated the walls of the school in rural Lancaster County using 800 bales of straw.

By harnessing nature to produce energy for the school and using natural materials in its construction, the organizers of the Prairie Hill Learning Center hope to teach their students how to live in harmony with the environment around them.

Ben Eigbrett, 12, visited the farm that produced the straw for the school over the summer. He and other students saw the wheat grow, rode the combine as the wheat was being harvested and then helped carry the straw back to the school site.

Ground was broken on the 2,940-square-foot school two years ago, but the walls did not begin to go up until this spring.

Eigbrett wore a ball cap and tall rubber boots Saturday as he stuffed the 18-inch bales between wall studs and secured them with strips of bamboo and wire.

"We just did it 'cause it saves energy and we're gonna collect the rainwater and use it in the garden and stuff," Eigbrett said.

The finished school will have two classrooms and a community room for the more than 60 children it serves.

The school will feature a windmill-powered system for electricity and solar panels to provide winter heating, day lighting and hot water. Above-ground basins will collect rain water for use on gardens and lawns.

The construction does not use any old-growth lumber, and its straw-bale insulation should significantly reduce the school's heating and cooling needs.