Here is a story from one of our schools in Illinois - Roselle Middle School has a roof mounted 1kW PV system, and is part of the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation solar schools program.

Roselle Middle School District - story submitted by Joel Simburger, 7th grade science teacher.

The introduction of the solar panels to RMS will not only help save money and reduce our carbon footprint, but also open students’ eyes to the alternative energy possibilities available to them. Roselle Middle School students begin their study of energy resources and their impact in 6th grade by viewing the website and calculating how much the school is saving.

The 7th grade science curriculum includes a study of energy resources and their costs, both financially and environmentally. Within this study, students weigh the pros and cons of different energy resources, including solar energy. The classes learn about solar energy using mini-solar panel laboratory kits and by observing data from the solar panel monitoring website.

8th grade students create graphs of the amount of energy the solar panels generate daily. They also create weather logs in science in order to see how weather affects how much energy the solar panels generate.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 9:14 am and is filed under Illinois, Solar Schools, Teacher Perspective . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.