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This activity could be made more challenging by asking students to look up the price of electricity (instead of using the average rate provided in the activity) and to learn about the actual rate of government subsidies for solar installations in their home state (instead of using an average amount, which is likely to change over time as policies change).
Activity provides suggestions for scaling the activity for lower grades as well.
Activity is designed to familiarize students with using the online Renewable Energy Living Lab data to evaluate whether solar power is a viable energy alternative for several cities in different parts of the U.S.
The data used in this activity comes from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the US Department of Energy.
Comments from expert scientist:
Scientific strengths:
- Promotes critical thinking and analysis among the students, which is great.
- They have to come to their own conclusions without being initially biased by anything (in the lab/classroom, at least).
- Hands-on, visual and interdisciplinary learning, which is great, especially when introduced at an early age like this.
Suggestions:
- The "Explore" section of the worksheet maybe should be a class discussion (e.g., What criteria is needed to determine if a city is a good candidate for solar power?).
- For this grade (7th), I think that some of the descriptions on the Living Lab website might be a little too high-level. The teachers should clarify things / make sure that all students understand (via discussion, perhaps?) the concepts and technologies being explored.
Students use a GIS-based mapping tool from the Renewable Energy Living Lab to quantify the amount of solar energy that can be generated in four cities (Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Portland, and San Antonio). Students go on to use the cost of solar panels and the price of electricity to determine the payback period for installing solar panels on industrial-sized roofs in these four cities.
This activity gets students thinking quantitatively, but it does so in a very step-wise manner, so it is not intimidating. Students use a mapping tool, a worksheet, and some helpful numbers (like the price of electricity) to calculate the economic payback period for solar energy in these four cities. As such, this activity could be useful for an economics class or economics case study.
The activity includes an outline for a class discussion, step-by-step instructions for educators, and assessment ideas.
All the materials are provided, including student worksheet, answer key, and background information. The design and layout are clear.
The map viewer has changed a little bit since the screen shots were made. The instructions are still correct, but the screen shots look slightly different from the actual tool.
In general, the map is intuitive, engaging, and fun to use. However, finding specific cities on the mapping tool is not intuitive. To locate specific cities, click on the circular icon in the upper right corner of the mapping tool underneath 'change base map', which when hovered over says 'zoom to a location.' Then type in the city name.
Note that Living Lab interface is a beta release - may change over time.
