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Despite the school year winding down, STEM classes at Mason Creek Elementary School (MAES) are heating up thanks to the Solarize a Classroom (SAC) Program. The program comes from the Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers (GYSTC), and it’s designed to help elementary students develop real-world concepts about energy and energy sources with a focus on solar and the complexity of providing energy to meet the needs of everyday living. The SAC Program provides our students with firsthand experiences that help them visualize and trace the pathway of energy from the sun to the electricity that operates devices that they use every day.
“GYSTC comes to our STEM nights and does presentation for our students and parents, so that’s where our partnership with them began,” said MAES STEM Teacher Sarah Anthony.
For students at MAES, the program provided a solar panel along with many other smaller learning aids for teachers and students. But before using the new materials, students in Anthony’s classes, using the new materials first began by taking time to understand background information about solar energy and other renewable sources. From there, they began doing smaller activities, like using sunlight to purify water or making robots that run from solar power.
“We did these types of activities with all grades, and it was so helpful for them all to learn these basics,” said Anthony. “Now, we’re really able to use the solar panel for different activities and look back to see how much energy it absorbs on cloudy days versus sunny days, or compare how much energy is needed to run things around the classroom like pencil sharpeners.”
For many, the best part about the solar panels is that students don’t have to leave their classroom to use them. When the panel was installed, a hole was drilled into Anthony’s classroom wall to run a receptacle inside the classroom to allow students to interact with renewable energy inside their classroom.
Because of this, the panels have been a hit for students of all ages with older students getting to see practical examples of standards taught in their science classes and younger ones learning vocabulary and concepts that will help them in future classes.
With MAES being the first school in the county to take advantage of the SAC Program, the school already hopes to expand its clean energy sources, as they hope to add solar panels atop their chicken coop to power light and an automatic feeder.
“I just want to say thanks to the GYSTC for providing us with these resources to help our students,” Anthony said. “I would encourage anyone wanting to incorporate this type of thing into their classroom to check out their website for more information.”
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