Solar Structures

• In this lesson, students act as engineers and build structures that use passive solar energy from the sunlight to either heat or minimize heating inside a building without using an external energy source.
  
• Students will plan a design, select materials, produce structures, present their projects to the class, and test the efficacy of their design elements.

Positives

• Students are encouraged to rethink designs and materials if they aren't the best fit, just as engineers would do.
• The inquiry-based nature of the lesson is great for keeping students engaged and learning.

Additional Prerequisites

• The Try Engineering link under Internet Connections and the link for ITEEA under Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks are broken.
• Students should know about green energy, solar energy, and green building.
• It may benefit students to understand why people want to use solar instead of fossil fuels or other energy sources.
• Students should know how to measure and build three-dimensional models.

Differentiation

• Students can think of simple ways the school can implement passive solar heating and cooling and write a proposal for their building.
• Language arts students can do more research about solar energy and its use in homes and businesses and then produce an informative piece of writing to teach others.
• Students can discuss what active solar elements they could implement in their models to achieve better results.
• Social studies students can brainstorm ways the government can incentivize homeowners to implement more solar energy.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.