Sacramento Teachers build Solar Notebook Chargers at Solar Primer Workshop
Thirty teachers gathered in Sacramento at SMUD Energy Technology Center on recent Saturday to learn how to integrate solar energy lessons into their classrooms. They also built solar cell phone/mp3 chargers using cardboard, duct tape, and solar cells. The Notebook chargers provide a practical application for solar electricity – charging the battery on your mobile device using only the energy of the sun. Educators also built a small motor-driven whirlygig – a kinetic sculpture – that when powered by the solar notebook, demonstrates how solar cells work. Solar Notebook Charger Kits are available from Solar Schoolhouse (Rahus Institute).
Posted in Workshop
Solar Potluck – Sharing a meal cooked by the sun
“What to bring?” to a ‘solar’ potluck? The answer is just about anything that you’d cook in an oven or simmer on the stove. Rahus/Solar Schoolhouse recently hosted a solar potluck in Sebastopol. Without much orchestration, just the right amount of dinner food and dessert resulted in happy people. One variation on the traditional potluck is that you need to put the food out in the early afternoon to allow time to cook. A few games and conversation keep us occupied until the food was ready. All you need is sunshine, a few solar ovens, and some willing chefs to try it out yourself. We’ll definitely try it again.
Posted in Event
Piedmont HS students build solar ovens for Sierra Leone
Piedmont High School 9th grade class came together to build 45 solar ovens in one morning in May. The ovens are part of a community service project designed to provide this needed tool to communities in Sierra Leone (West Africa). Teacher Marna Chamberlain, inspired by building a solar oven at the Solar Schoolhouse Summer Institute for Educators, proposed the idea for the class project. Several weeks before the big build, a group of teachers, parents, and student leaders were trained in the oven assembly process by Tor from Solar Schoolhouse. The ovens next will be tested before being shipped.
Posted in Project