Solar Energy 2023

On our last day of Solar Energy IL we assembled all 18 petals of the Solar Parabolic Oven together. It was difficult trying to get the shape of the parabola just right. We then constructed the cradle out of 2×4 boards and positioned the completed parabolic oven into it. We were unable to test...

Today, we used our petal template to make 18 cardboard petals with sides 20 degrees apart and curved to match our parabolic equation. This took all morning without a break so we took a long lunch. After lunch we were visited by the first grade classes to talk about robots and our Solar Energy...

Today, we programmed our Arduino boards further, and we built them to record temperature using a temperature sensor. Then, we took our solar ovens outside when it was sunny so that they could heat up. We used the Arduino boards to measure their internal temperature. We baked cookies with our solar ovens for a...

Today we spent four hours constructing our solar ovens with cardboard, styrofoam insulation, and aluminum foil. Unfortunately there wasn’t much sun today, so we couldn’t test them. We cut pieces of plexiglass using a score knife and broke them to the proper size to put on top of our solar ovens to prevent heat...

Today we learned how to solder components onto a printed circuit board (PCB). These skills and the skills learned on Friday were used to connect the solar panels to each other in parallel. This way the electricity generated would double the amperage of the circuit’s output but keep the voltage at about 9 volts....

Today we learned the basics of electrity, electronics and soldering. We built series and parallel circuits with both batteries and resistors. Learning how to solder without burning ourselves, that was pretty cool. After lunch we learned how to breadboard and build LED circuits. All in all a very fun and interesting learning experience of...