The Refinishing Touch Blog

Schools with green design are nothing new. Neither are schools with a green curriculum. Schools that use their green design as a key component of a green curriculum, though, are much harder to find.

The Valley View Middle School in Snohomish, Washington does just that. The building follows all of the tenets of green design, but uses its architectural and sustainable features to teach students. All of Valley View’s mechanical equipment, ranging from boilers to water systems, is color-coded and visible to students. This allows the students to, for example, watch rain water travel through pipes to be reused in bathrooms.

The Da Vinci Arts Middle School in Portland, Oregon uses the same teaching methodologies. In addition to a net-zero music room and a water garden for collecting storm water, Da Vinci Arts allows students to track energy use from the school’s photovoltaic solar panels, donated by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

With an environmental slant, school buildings themselves can turn into a teaching tool, an able supplement to the lessons learned inside, and teachers can see both students and their buildings at work.

Labels: Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Da Vinci Arts Middle School, Education, Green, Valley View Middle School