Solar Energy
Vision
Our vision for Canada is one where students grow up as responsible and informed energy consumers. Students will be the next generation and must be equipped to make environmentally friendly choices. We would love to see a Canada where we may consume energy without placing our home, Earth, in danger in the process since we know there are environmental friendly alternatives.
Action
In our K-12 school, our high school committee is working with the 3%project (https://3percentproject.com/acceuil/) where they are planning cost-efficiency and fundraising to equip our school with solar panels. Their goal is to make the school a clean energy school and in the same stence, using them to educate our students. Our student-let team wants people to know how solar panels function and that it is possible to use them in our regions, even with snow. Students want to include the solar panel and energy use in the classes by linking it to curriculums for teachers.
However, for the 2018-2019 school year, because this initiative is part of a larger project for our school, our team spent this grant by buying small scale solar panels and related equipment for our newly built greenhouse. The team intends to use the solar panels to water the greenhouse with a rainbarrel and timer. At the same time, they will learn the necessary process and equipments for school-wide solar panel.
Reflection & Celebration
The biggest challenges were the lack of knowledge on solar panels from students, teachers and community. The student-led committee learned alot from this process. We visited other schools with solar panels, called the electricity providers as well as local stores selling solar panels.
It was a huge success as our team is now better equipped to understand the entirety of implications to solar panels, our school greenhouse is self-watering and our committee is ready to tackle next year to include solar panels to the school. Additonally, working with the 3% organization, our students learned how to create cost-efficiency and cost-impact analysis and charts. We, as teachers, strongly believe this will permit them to be knowledgable, equipped, engaged and active citizens in the future.