This summer, I (Dan Heuser, DS 2nd grade teacher) traveled to Greenville, Tennessee to take a course on tiny house construction. The course was run by This Cob House, an organization - really just one guy, Alex - that builds using a natural material called cob. I met a bunch of friendly people in the course from all walks of life. It turns out that young families with kids, retirees, homesteaders, teachers and herbalists all want to get their hands dirty and learn how to build sustainably.

I learned a lot during the week. First, cob is a Scottish/Welsh term for a loaf of bread, which began to make sense when I started building. Essentially, you combine soil, sand, straw, and water. There’s a lot of mixing involved, and the preferred method is to stamp on it, barefoot, like you’re making wine. My classmates and I made a three foot high cob wall, and studied the techniques to install windows and doors, roofs and floors, and all the other parts of a cob house.

Why tiny houses, and why cob? First, my wife and I love watching those tiny house shows and fantasize about living in one one day. It looks so easy and fun when couples build the houses together. (I learned it is fun, but not easy). I also have a deep interest in sustainability, and how the built environment intersects with climate change, food security, habitat loss, poverty, and quality of life. My Christian faith and role as an educator call me to cultivate my gifts for caring for my neighbors and creation. Plus, I love to be outside and physical work for me is a form of play. 

Making cob is messy, fun work, and I thought, “This would be perfect for our second graders!” Our fall project is Garden Helpers, which focuses on how we help gardens and how gardens help us. In the case of cob, the garden gives us a natural building material that is energy efficient, virtually free, and best done in the community (see below pictures of second graders building a cob wall within their fall 2024 project). 

For an introduction to cob, second graders built a short wall - we’re talking a height of six inches - and it was fascinating to see kids’ range of reactions to getting dirty. Some spontaneously broke out into song as they mixed the cob. Others were more leary. Later in the project, the most interested builders used a cob to make a bench for the second-grade garden.

I am thankful to Duke School for financing my study through the John Watson Moore Grant. The fund, begun by Duke School parents Ann Stuart and John Watson Moore and supplemented by other donors, provides teachers with reflective time doing their choice of activities that make their work more meaningful. The cob-building experience certainly did this for me.