Solar panels provide savings, lessons at Jefferson High School

Solar panels affixed to the roof at Jefferson High School will mean energy savings for the school and learning opportunities for students.Think of it as a life-sized science lab. Instead of huddling around a battery and a light bulb in the physics room next year, students will be able to pull up a website and learn how much power the panels are generating.They'll be able to adjust the panels and see if that results in more or less energy production. Then, they'll apply the raw production numbers to the building's overall electrical usage and calculate what it means in terms of dollars and cents.
The solar panels — purchased from Rockford Renewable Energy — are expected to arrive in a few weeks, but the educational value arrived last year when teachers Nancy Cleburn and Dallas Turner led students through the state grant application.Teachers and students across the state were challenged to study solar panels and wind turbines and determine which one would work best to improve energy efficiency at their particular school. They also were asked to weigh cost, warranties and durability and come up with a recommendation.Jefferson's environmental science students conducted lab work to prove their theories, supplied data and eventually chose solar panels. They should be able to reduce the building's electrical bill by $100 a month, Turner said.
Going forward, students across the building will get pulled into the project. Writing students will be able to report on the panels' outcomes and perhaps help instructors apply for another grant. Design students may be asked to come up with a better way to mount the panels on the roof.The project is a great opportunity for kids to connect lab work with real life."It was a real project, and they could see the results of their work doing something. It's not just something on paper," Turner explained. "It's something that's going to be here at their school."It's going to be something that students will remember long after they leave the school and much more than something they read about in a textbook."It's real-world science," said Laura Jernigan, an assistant principal for science curriculum K-12. "We're moving away from the traditional classroom and from memorizing and reading text to assessing real-world problems."Jefferson also will be getting a windmill soon, Jernigan said, as will East High School.