Just a few ideas from a middle schools science educator on solar energy in schools. Our guest blogger today, Steve Bodley, taught middle school science for 33 years. After a very positive experience teaching with home solar energy, he now works in the solar energy industry, explaining the value of solar to potential customers.
Introduction
The interest and use of renewable energy is growing throughout the country and world, but many Americans are still unaware of the potential of these technologies in their own lives. In 2011, my wife and I began to explore the possibilities for our own home (pictured below). What started as a fun little project for us became a fantastic learning experience for my students over the past decade. Here is the story of my teaching about solar energy in schools.
Solar Starting Point
We were just a simple couple. both of us were educators in a suburban school district in south central Pennsylvania. My wife, a special education teacher, and I, a physical science teacher, would excitedly point out the rare solar arrays that sparsely appeared on homes in our area in 2010. I understood the basics of the technology, but only from a 10,000 foot level. My wife finally shared that she thought it would be a neat addition for our home, if we could afford it.
Well, after visits from six companies over the following moths, we realized…we couldn’t. It seemed that the only way we could acquire a system was to win a huge amount of money, (don’t ask me to list the scenarios that went through my mind to gather this small fortune…) or sell our home and live under the array in a field somewhere. Our options were only to buy the system outright within less than a year. Fortunately, our seventh optionprovided us with an opportunity for a lease. We jumped. Even though we would pay MORE for our power for several years, we both agreed that it was something we wanted to do. In December 2013, we activated our array.
Initial Data
As the months went by, I, like many of my solar array owning peers, nerded out on the data that constantly streamed to my phone app from the energy production of the solar panels. Initially, it was just for me. The joy of seeing a plummeting net usage from my power company and knowing tha tmost of our home’s energy needs were being powered by the sun was extremely gratifying.
Later, I realized what I really had.
Science needs in the School
As the science department chairperson, the summer brings Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test results, and the opportunity to compare how our district’s students academically to their PA peers. PSSA testing takes place in 4th and 8th grade for science. As an 8th grade educator for my entire career, the data gives a snapshot of what to work on when planning for curriculum modification for the upcoming year. What are we doing right for our students? Where are the weaknesses in the curriculum that would better prepare them for… everything science related?
As I looked at the results in 2014, it became clear that a few areas in our curriculum needed to be buttressed. In the middle levels, our students have a general science course in grades 5-8 with specific areas of concentration:
- Grade 5: Earth Science
- Grade 6: Environment, Technology and Energy
- Grade 7: Life Sciences
- Grade 8: Physical Science, and tying it all together to reinforce that science has no real classification boundaries
Logically, the more remote the subject matter is on the student academic timeline, the more vocabulary and understanding fades.
When I put it all together, I realized we needed to reintroduce some Earth Science vocabulary and content and create real world exercises that students could improve their calculation and estimation skills with repeated practice.
Bringing Solar Energy Data to School
Kids love rewards and gamification. They also want to have success… and not necessarily to have a single class ‘winner’, but an activity that they can ALL demonstrate that they ‘won’.
The real-time solar array data was my answer. I brought solar energy in school by creating a small packet (4-5 pages) that included the historical data from my solar array and corresponding information regarding the date and weather recorded on those dates.
Students were given these tasks :
- Creating their own ‘solar potential production’ predictions for the time of year.
- Creating their own estimations for the impact of weather on corresponding dates.
- Acquiring a local weather forecast from a ‘reliable’ weather agency.
- Making a daily kW prediction for the next 7 days during Monday science class. (10 minute commitment for Monday class time)
- Turn in their predictions to the posted Google Form while keeping their hard copy in their notes.
- At the start of each class on Tuesday-Friday, students had 3 minutes to acquire the actual data posted for them on the front board, place that data on the sheet and complete a % error calculation to see how close their estimation was to the actual observed production. The goal on a daily and weekly basis was less than 20% error. If a student achieved less than 5% error, I provided Smarties™ candies daily for them to enjoy. (Generally the sugar rush improved their classroom performance. 😂)
Solar Energy in Schools Continues
This activity went on for several weeks. The warmup excited the students and promoted great on-task conversation. Initially, the % errors were MASSIVE. Students at the age of 13-14 generally accept any answer that has been projected on their calculator screen without any thought as to whether that answer makes any sense. But soon, students became better… then much better… and then, each year, each class exceeded my expectations. I was handing out a LOT of Smarties™. Student often talked about which forecasting agency was more reliable during the 5-7th day portion of the forecast… and which… in their opinion… were trash!
I put in the occasional twist to the activity. In the spring when pollen in our area is high, I occasionally wash the panels at my home with window washing equipment. I shared with the students that I had washed 17 of the 34 panels. They had to tell me where the washed panels were located. They had 1 week to collect the data and make their conclusion. With less than a 1% difference in daily panel production the large majority of students identified the washed panels successfully.
What’s Next for Solar Energy in Schools?
Now, this was data from my home array. Small by most standards… nothing special. It gave my students a fun, meaningful activity that was a real-world, real-time, mathematically integrated lesson that has created a lot of memories based on my student’s comments years later. Imagine the rich opportunity that a much larger solar array mounted on school buildings or property could bring to multiple grade levels. Imagine the modeling opportunity that districts could demonstrate to their students and community.
The question is, how do we get school district decision makers to make choices that model a renewable future and bring solar energy in schools, based on the science and facts?