Solar Energy
This resource pack provides materials for developing a student project to design, build and test a solar powered car, learning about the science behind harnessing solar energy in a practical context.
Career Clips: Solar Energy Researcher
Excite students about possible careers related to solar energy. The video also shows how solar energy is harnessed through engaging animations.
Solar Detectives
Solar Detectives, from the Centre for Science Education, is a set of teaching materials which offer a cross-curricular approach to learning about engineering. Students build and modify a model solar car and research the science and mathematics underlying the use of solar energy.
Starter activity
• Investigating solar energy
Technology
• Building a model solar car
• Modifying a model solar car
Science
• Developing solar energy
• Warning signs
Mathematics
• Comparing solar cars
Solar Cells and Light Absorption
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity looks at the relationship between light and absorption in solar cells. Using a photovoltaic cell and different colour acetate sheets, it demonstrates the ability of solar cells to absorb at different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum and shows how the more it can absorb, the more power it produces
Solar Power: Electricity from the Sun
The booklet in this resource provides a wealth of information about harnessing solar energy and its applications.
There are also teachers notes and practical activities to support the theory.
Energy Connections Card Sort
Use this activity to reinforce some of the science behind a solar powered car project.
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity uses the format of a well-known TV game. Students are given collections of cards and they need to make the connections between them. Each set has a theme. The cards can be used to consider:
• photovoltaic cells
• solar energy
• energy transfers
• renewable energies.
Solar Cells
This is a good article for students, describing how solar cells work.
Pit Stop
Once students have designed and built their solar powered cars, use this maths resource to investigate the performance of model solar cars through a series of racing challenges
Case Studies from 2009
After the project, why not give students some food for thought? Just how green can a car be? This article could be used as stimulus material for a more open design project on the future of greener transport.
