Thanks to a local young man’s efforts, current and future students at Dawson County Middle School can enjoy the great outdoors while they learn.

Christopher Bywaletz, 16, oversaw planning and construction of an outdoor classroom as his Eagle Scout project, an achievement that recently earned him the much sought-after rank.

The classroom sits in a wooded area beside the school. Teachers can sign up to use it whenever they want to give students a change of venue.

Bywaletz said the main idea was for science class projects.

“Science teachers were the first to sign up to use it,” he said.

In total, he said the project took about 180 hours to plan and build.

“Everything that could go wrong pretty much did go wrong,” he said. “Luckily, we had some good planning going on ... and it turned out way better than I originally planned.”

Bywaletz enlisted the help of some of his friends to construct the classroom.

“My scout troop is running low on people at the moment, so I ended up relying on friends a lot,” he said.

He finished the project in November, went before an Eagle Scout review board and earned the rank shortly thereafter.

Mother, Kathy Bywaletz, said the family is “very proud of the project. Hopefully it will be there for a long time.”