Solar Car Challenge: Background Research on Car Design
Students will play around with the solar car kits to familiarize themselves with the materials in preparation for the solar car engineering challenge.
Students will play around with the solar car kits to familiarize themselves with the materials in preparation for the solar car engineering challenge.
Students will expose solar cells to a light source from a set distance and measure the output with a multimeter. Students will change the angle that the light source strikes the solar panel and measure the resultant output. They will compare and contrast...
This lesson plan will engage students in a design process to power a motor using a variety of energy sources. Students will compare different clean energy sources to decide which energy source will complete their design goal. Students will experiment with...
This lesson is designed to be completed in one 40-minute section. Students will have already learned the concepts of basic circuits, including voltage, current, power, parallel and serial circuits. Teachers will then explain the basic concept of solar...
This lesson gives students hands-on experiences with the attraction and repulsion of magnets including experiments with how the strength of attraction and repulsion varies with distance. Students see how magnets are used in motors but also in electric...
Students will do an actual site assessment to determine the available solar resource for a chosen location.
Students will race different iterations of solar cars: geared and pulley-system cars using varying gear ratios. Students will have the opportunity to make predictions, record data, and explain the results centered on the selection of these different...
This lesson explores the concept of irradiance by having students use a Vernier Pryanometer. Using the “Light Source Efficiency” worksheet to guide their work, students measure irradiance as compared to the Sun’s irradiance to see what would be the best...
Somewhat similar to the first part of the wind turbine project from Lesson 3, students are tasked with optimizing the performance of a photovoltaic system. This objective both allows students to apply the engineering-design process they absorbed in...
Students will learn the basics of how a solar cell generates electricity and observe the effects on a small electrical load attached to a solar module under a variety of conditions. They will build upon knowledge gained in previous lessons dealing with...
Bonneville Environmental Foundation
1500 SW 1st Avenue, Suite 710
Portland OR 97201
phone: 503-248-1905