Solar-Powered Learning
The faux sunshine warmed the water temperature inside Emma Herrle's model house 8 degrees in five minutes.
A large spotlight representing the sun was key to Emma's fourth grade science education at Meridian Elementary in the Butler School District.
Teacher Cindy Michelini this year used a Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation grant for creative teaching to purchase the supplies for the new unit on solar energy and turned it into a three-week lesson.
Michelini, who teaches science to about 55 students in three classes, said she was interested in adding the unit to the science classes so the students could make a connection with green energy.
"The idea is to get them to understand how to apply this to their houses," she said. "I want them to see how easy it is to go from burning coal all the time to using the sunshine."
Michelini bought the supplies for the project in kits from a catalog. Before Christmas, groups of students spent a day constructing the desktop-sized houses from foam board and a photogenic cell.
They spent a couple class days doing experiments on the temperature of the homes and the energy needed to heat them.
Now that they are back from winter break, Michelini led Tuesday's class in groups to test how the water temperatures inside the houses can be changed.
A morning class broke into four groups to test how the water heated with various materials such as cellophane and screens between the water and the light. Groups pumped water from a small can inside the houses through a circular piece of plastic tubing. One group member held the spotlight 3 inches from the tubing while another student took the temperature of the water every 30 seconds.
For one group, the water went from 74 degrees to 82 degrees in five minutes.
Emma's group was using a piece of red cellophane as a filter from the sun, and she said the water temperature took a big jump about the 3-minute mark. Her group of four students then got together to plan out a chart that would show the temperature increase."I learned we can make a house and heat it with the sun and nature," she said.This was the first year Michelini's classes could do the project because of funding from the creative teaching grant. She was awarded the $1,535 grant in October. The Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation this year increased the limit for projects to $5,000 from a total pot of $500 in past years.The grants, which are possible through fundraising events hosted by the foundation, go toward projects in the Butler School District that begin with teacher grant applications. They provide the money needed for supplies, transportation or admissions. The grants are awarded on a competitive basis and are scored based on creativity and learning objectives.Michelini won the full funding for her project.
