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Boonshoft Museum to open Be Green House for environmental education

Boonshoft exhibit hopes to educate kids, and parents about environment.

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By Kim Margolis, Staff Writer 12:37 AM Thursday, February 25, 2010

DAYTON — The latest exhibit at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery will show kids how to have a green future, while nudging their parents to do the same now.

The Be Green House debuts at the museum on Friday, Feb. 26.

Through the house, children will learn more about techniques already known to them like recycling, but they also will learn about harnessing wind and sun to create energy.

“The house was the best way to relate to kids everyday, but also to tap into what could be,” said Diane Farrell, the museum’s vice president of external relations. “It will also give adults something to think about.”

Some of the home’s feature are:

• Its construction is on top of stilts. This would allow natural wildlife like squirrels or possums to live below it. Also, it allows there to be a vehicle for heated water under the home that would heat the inside of the house.

• It has a shading feature which shows how an easement of the house was built to properly direct the sun to warm the house in the winter and keep it outside in the summer. Visitors can turn a crank to show how the sun would be directed at different times of the year.

• It also includes the use of a rain barrel for water re-use, recycled cork flooring and a small wind turbine to create energy.

• Since it is geared toward kids the home also will be filled with green toys such as trucks made from recycled glass and stuffed animals colored with soy dye.

The other mission of the home is to remind students that they don’t have to have an interest or expertise in math or science to make a difference in the environment.

“You don’t have to be a chemist to have an effect on the environment,” Farrell said.

Like all permanent exhibits at the museum, the Be Green Home will be on display for five to 10 years.

The home was constructed by Display Dynamics. It was planned by the museum, the Montgomery County Solid Waste District, Messer Construction, Heapy Engineering and The Architectural Group.

Contact this reporter at

(937) 225-2216 or kmargolis@

DaytonDailyNews.com.

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