The Solar Classroom Lesson Plan is a resource for watching videos about a fourth grade class that powered its room with solar energy. It emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning for understanding complex concepts, such as how a solar panel works. Here are a few simple experiments that will break down solar energy for kids.
Hand out the Student Background Worksheet. Have students read article #1 (How Green Are Those Solar Panels, Really?) independently or read it as a class. You may also want to assign this article as homework reading prior to class. Discuss the article and ask the students what they now think about solar panels.
To easily make a homemade/DIY solar cell, get a power transistor like the 2N3055 and carefully cut open the case. That exposes the semiconductor material inside to light. Hook up some wires and you're done! Doing this I managed to get around 500 millivolts and 5.5 milliamps which is 2.7 milliwatts.
To teach a solar system model, have students demonstrate models. Show a model of the solar system where 400,000 km equals 1 mm. Point out that this model would not have satisfied our requirements because the planets are too small to draw. Ask students to think about and verbalize the point of the lesson.
Solar energy, or energy from the sun, is a free, readily available, plentiful resource that can be collected by solar cells to generate electricity. Although solar cells have been around for a long time, their use for energy generation is not widespread.
In this green chemistry lesson plan, students will build and test their own dye-sensitized solar cells using dye from blackberries. Along the way, they will learn about the principles of green chemistry and evaluate how solar cell manufacturing can go green. Consider this process against the twelve principles of green chemistry.