I teach science in junior high school.  Kids have a lot of questions about solar power, conservation, and energy-saving methods these days, so I’m always looking for interesting ways of teaching them about those subjects.   We discuss facts about solar energy, home solar systems, and alternative energy production.

Kids are very good at persuading their parents to go green.  Our students have really gotten involved in this movement.  They collect recyclable materials at home, bring them to school, sort them, and sell them as a way of fundraising.  We had a science fair last month.  It was an intermural competition hosted by our junior high.  It was really quite amazing to see the number of exhibits devoted to green topics, like different typed of solar cells, making biodiesel from used oil, how paper is recycled, etc.  Some of the exhibits were really quite sophisticated, certainly more so than in my junior high days.

I was one of the judges, and had to recues myself when judging students from my school.  But I’m thrilled to report the winner was one of my students, who rigged up a miniature house powered by solar cells, operated by a computer system wired into the house. It was really great.

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