Northumberland High School Students Build Solar Labs

Each year, Northumberland High School Physics students study how Net-Zero homes are designed and built as part of their Electricity and Thermodynamics Units. A Net-Zero home is one that produces as much energy as it uses over the course of a year and relies on renewable energy, wind or solar, to do so.

This year, using a grant from the Northumberland Association for Progressive Stewardship (NAPS), students were able to learn about solar energy and building electrical circuits first hand, by actually building solar labs. These labs, designed by their Physics teacher Gary Dickens, consisted of a large 25 Watt solar panel, mounted on a wooden A-frame, with associated battery charging components on the front, and space to build LED circuits on the back. The labs are durable and will be used in future classes for solar power and circuit building experiments. The Northumberland High School Physics Program thanks NAPS for their gracious donation.

Here is a look at the students using and building the labs:

Trenton Liner and Claudia Lopez measuring the charging output of the solar cell (both images above)

Trenton Liner, Luke Swann, Claudia Lopez and Courtney Parrish building electrical circuits on the back of the A-frames.

Trenton Liner, Claudia Lopez and Courtney Parrish attaching the solar panels to the A-frames.

Luke Swann, Courtney Parrish and Trenton Liner painting the wood panels for the A-frames.