Southwest Middle School

As a Renewable School, Southwest Middle School in Lawrence, Kansas is building a dedicated community of renewable energy educators, generating clean energy through their 1-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system as an educational tool to bring energy topics to life in their classrooms. Energy monitoring provided by the Solar 4R Schools program made the live performance data from their PV system available for educational purposes at the time of the project.

The project award from Solar 4R Schools is helping create a brighter future for students at Southwest Middle School. The system was installed on the roof of the main entrance to the school to spark the students’ interest about the workings and benefits of renewable energy. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Douglas County Community Foundation’s Elizabeth Schultz Environmental Fund. In 2004, educators within the school received a customized renewable energy teacher training, hands-on science kit materials to augment the school's existing curricula, and complete access to the resources available on the Solar4RSchools.org website.