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At PS/IS 276 in Battery Park City, carbon dioxide sensors adjust air-conditioning based on how many people are in a room; photocells detect sunlight and turn off classroom lights; and solar panels power half the building. For planners and architects, it's a showcase of environmental building practices.

"This building surpasses the requirements of state energy code by 26 percent. And I'm pretty confident that at this point, it's the most sustainable building from an energy point of view in New York," said Daniel Heuberger of Dattner Architects.

The building, which houses 900 students, was in the works even before the city required schools to be built green. The Battery Park City Authority helped pay for the extra features.

But the ideal of green school construction extends beyond brick and mortar benefits into what's actually happening in the classrooms everyday. Educators say they're using the building as a springboard for science and social studies classes on the environment and urban planning.

The solar panels on the roof, in addition to generating electricity, will also generate a steady stream of data, which can be sent to any computer in the building and which tells you in real time how much power the solar panels are generating, which panels are doing the most work and we hope the teachers will use it for science labs and other educational purposes," Heuberger said.

There's also an outdoor science lab, soon to include a weather station.

"We're collecting real time data on weather and hydrology and the soil and when the trees are budding and all of that as part of an international effort to monitor climate change," said PS/IS 276 Principal Terri Ruyter.

Next door, the Skyscraper Museum is developing a whole curriculum based on the new school building.

"They have a matched set of images of our building being built and the Empire State Building being built. And it's a curriculum that is based on primary resources and the kids are going to be comparing the two images to see about methods of construction, how it's the same and different, and what makes something sustainably built," Ruyter said.