To see descriptions of all available curriculum by grade level, click here. To download a PDF of all available units, click here.

Cost Effective Solar Cells: Solar Cell Manufacturing Field Trip and/or Guest Speaker

Grades:
9-12
Lesson Number:
9
Description:

This lesson is designed to be completed in two 80-minute sections. The teacher will facilitate a field trip to a nearby silicon manufacturing facility, solar panel manufacturing facility, or other semiconductor facility. These facilities often require...

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Learning Goal(s):
Students will visit a solar cell or silicon manufacturing facility and/or engage with guest speakers.Students will learn more detailed solar cell principles and manufacturing techniques involved in solar cell construction.
Author:
Tom Wolverton
Estimated Activity Length:
3 hours

Cost Effective Solar Cells: Researching Chemicals and Materials for Solar Cell Construction

Grades:
9-12
Lesson Number:
10
Description:

This lesson is designed to be completed in three 80-minute sections. The teacher will facilitate student research on solar cell designs centering around the engineering problem: How can we make a cheaper, cleaner or more efficient solar cell? Teachers...

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Learning Goal(s):
Students will research chemicals, materials and procedures for their own solar cell designsStudents will write an introduction to the problem, including criteria, constraints, and solar cell conceptsStudents will research and write a rough materials and procedure for the solar cellStudents will research and describe their solar cell designs.
Author:
Tom Wolverton
Estimated Activity Length:
4 hours

Cost Effective Solar Cells: Unique Solar Cell Model Sketch and Presentation

Grades:
9-12
Lesson Number:
11
Description:

This lesson is designed to be completed in two 80-minute sections. The teacher will facilitate brief class presentations on the unique solar cell models. Teachers will model and encourage students to provide warm and cool feedback to the presenters,...

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Learning Goal(s):
Students will sketch 2D or 3D models of their proposed solar cellsStudents will present their unique solar cell design ideas and sketches of their solar cells
Author:
Tom Wolverton
Estimated Activity Length:
3 hours

Cost Effective Solar Cells: Unique Solar Cell Construction & Testing

Grades:
9-12
Lesson Number:
12
Description:

This lesson is designed to be completed in four 80-minute sections. The teacher will facilitate the construction of unique solar cells for student projects. General chemistry equipment and fabrication equipment will be needed for student construction and...

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Cost Effective Solar Cells: Construction Progress and Obstacles

Grades:
9-12
Lesson Number:
13
Description:

This lesson is designed to be completed in one 80-minute section. The teacher will facilitate 3-4 groups as they share their construction progress and obstacles. Students will share individual results in a fishbowl setting and will participate in...

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Cost Effective Solar Cells: Unique Solar Cell Engineering Report

Grades:
9-12
Lesson Number:
14
Description:

This lesson is designed to be completed in three 80-minute sections. The teacher will have students write their engineering reports with the following sections: Introduction (taken from Lesson #10), Design (incorporating the model from Lesson #10),...

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Learning Goal(s):
Students will format solar cell data into tables and graphsStudents will draw conclusions based on testing dataStudents will construct an engineering report in a research poster format
Author:
Tom Wolverton
Estimated Activity Length:
4 hours
Simple Solar Water Heater

Making the Standard Solar Heater

Grades:
6-8
Lesson Number:
1
Description:

In part one of the activity students will be asked to create a simple solar heater, measure the temperature change in a vial of water, then calculate the heat energy transferred to a vial of water. Students will construct the solar heater, place a set...

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Learning Goal(s):
In this activity students will learn that sunlight energy can be transformed into other forms of energy and that the amount of sunlight energy captured by an object can be quantified and measured.
Author:
Nathan Franck
Estimated Activity Length:
1 hour

Manipulating Design Variables on Solar Heaters

Grades:
6-8
Lesson Number:
2
Description:

Part 2 builds on part 1, asking students to design a solar heater that more effectively collects solar energy. Students are provided with various building supplies and are asked to change one variable from the standard to construct a new, more effective...

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Creating the Most Effective Solar Heater

Grades:
6-8
Lesson Number:
3
Description:

This part can be staged as a competition or simply a personal challenge to beat the standard solar heater created in part 1. During this stage of the lesson students are asked to analyze data and results from part 2 and identify which characteristics of a...

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Arduino Angler Design

Illuminate Me: Merging Conductive Sewing, Technology, and Solar Power

Grades:
7-12
Description:

Light up your clothing using solar power! For this unit, students will attach thin, flexible solar modules to a bike helmet and recharge NiMH rechargeable batteries for a renewable energy battery pack. The rechargeable batteries will be used to light up...

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Learning Goal(s):
1. Students will design and sew a wearable circuit using conductive thread. 2. Students will program a wearable microcontroller to light up garment with bright LEDs. 3. Students will incorporate solar power into a wearable garment project by recharging NiMH batteries for a renewable energy battery pack. 4. Students will apply knowledge of circuitry and energy transfer to maximize design.
Author:
Kristy Schneider
Estimated Activity Length:
10 hours