For some local students, solar energy is more than just a lesson in a science text.
This summer, McHenry West High School students will build a super-insulated structure on school grounds that will produce electricity and heat from the sun.
At Crystal Lake Central High School, solar panels will be installed on a portion of the building this summer, with students monitoring the solar activity on a computer and studying the school’s electric bill, looking for signs of decreased energy use.
Both projects show students first-hand ways to help conserve energy, their teachers say.
"I keep telling the kids all the time, they’re going to be the ones who come up with the solution that allows us to continue as a society as well as we can," said McHenry West math teacher Paul Wilm, who received $10,000 through BP’s A+ for Energy program to build the solar-powered structure. "I’m trying to get the real life aspects of math into the classroom.
For Central High School teacher Michelle Dare, there is no better way to get students involved in helping save the Earth than by having them monitor the effect solar panels will have on their school.
"With skyrocketing gas prices, the kids already see this is a problem - it’s real to them," said Dare, who also received $10,000 from BP for her project. "They need to know we need to use renewable energy sources."
Super Structure on West Campus
The plan for the super-insulated structure to be built near the tennis courts on the McHenry West campus will be completely heated by the sun, Wilm said.
"The goal is to eventually keep the structure heated year-round at 60 degrees by just using solar energy," Wilm said. "We have no idea if this is going to work."
The 10-foot-by-10-foot structure will have two solar panels, one to produce electricity and one to produce heat. Sensors will collect temperature data and sun strength 24 hours a day.
"So we’ll know how strong the energy of the sun hitting the structure is." Wilm said. "We just want to see how much energy you can collect, how much you can use."
A computer will keep track of the data that math and physics students will study and analyze. Math students will make mathematical models of how the structure is working, and for physics students, the project "has everything to do with thermodynamics energy transfer," Wilm said.
Teachers working on the project with Wilm are physics teacher James Anderson and drafting teacher Russell Micklinghoff, whose senior drafting students researched and designed the structure as their senior project.
At least 35 students volunteered to help build the structure this summer, with the help of a contractor.
"That’s the crazy part," Wilm said. "These kids wanting to come to school over the summer to do this."
Central’s Energy-Saving Lesson
The solar panels at Crystal Lake Central, to be installed on a southern-facing wall of the school near the field house, will be put up this summer in time for students to monitor the solar activity and energy savings this fall.
"I’d like to have a computer just dedicated to the solar panels with a live feed so the kids can see it any time," Dare said.
Her students will study how electricity use is calculated by evaluating their home electric bills and the high school bill, looking for energy and cost savings with the solar panels installed. She hopes to eventually add more solar panels.
"I take little steps at a time," she said of her efforts to make a difference in saving the Earth.
In Earth science class, Dare’s students don’t simply study types of rocks and minerals but learn about them as a natural resource.
"Every teacher adds [his or her] own bias," she said. "I want students to understand how minerals are actually used. Part of teaching science—to me—is teaching what scientists actually do in the real world."
This isn’t the first time Dare has had notoriety at the school. She once brought moon rocks from NASA to show her students after becoming certified through NASA to handle the rocks.
