Solar Panel Cell Phone Chargers
by Shayna Haberman
Recently, my Honors and 12-3 Environmental Science classes built their own solar panel cell phone chargers. To construct these, students used instruments like wire cutters, soldering irons, and glue guns; and they actually mastered these tools pretty quickly to build mostly functioning chargers! During this lab, we aimed to learn more about solar power and their components - such a photovoltaic cells, the black squares on the panels that convert light into electricity. The students followed up the lab with lab reports. This was a part of our larger Energy unit, where we explored renewable and nonrenewable energy sources such as natural gas, coal, oil, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power.
Recently, my Honors and 12-3 Environmental Science classes built their own solar panel cell phone chargers. To construct these, students used instruments like wire cutters, soldering irons, and glue guns; and they actually mastered these tools pretty quickly to build mostly functioning chargers! During this lab, we aimed to learn more about solar power and their components - such a photovoltaic cells, the black squares on the panels that convert light into electricity. The students followed up the lab with lab reports. This was a part of our larger Energy unit, where we explored renewable and nonrenewable energy sources such as natural gas, coal, oil, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power.
