Virtual high school offers summer course for solar energy design
Submitted by Joyce Massicotte
Join VHS, Concord Consortium, and industry experts on an important initiative to involve students in crucial sustainable engineering efforts. Through generous funding from both the National Science Foundation and General Motors, VHS and Concord Consortium are engaging students in the crucial exploration of solar engineering, using Energy3D, a simulation-based (CAD) engineering tool for designing green buildings and power stations that harness renewable energy to achieve sustainable development. Please visit the VHS Solar Energy Design page to learn more about the curriculum that has been developed through this initiative.
Free seats in VHS Solar Energy Design Summer course:
We have a limited number of FREE seats in our summer session 1 offering of Solar Energy Design. This robust 4-week course is offered in partnership with Concord Consortium through a federally supported grant from the National Science Foundation and by General Motors. We are looking for a number of motivated students who are interested in engineering and solar science, to participate in this exciting opportunity, using Energy 3-D software to model and solarize a home. Please let us know if you have a high school student that would like the opportunity take this course at no charge (Note: due to the limited number of seats available for this opportunity, we can only allow up to 3 seats per school.) by contacting us at: email@example.com for additional information.
Free Solar Energy Design Curriculum Module:
VHS has created an abbreviated independent learning opportunity (ILO) version of curriculum that introduces students to Energy3D and guides them to create a solar model of their own home or similar residential building. That ILO is available within D2L here: Solar Energy Design ILO. It is also freely available to the public on our website in PDF and zip file (for LMS import) formats here: Solar Energy Design ILO (public).
Solar Energy Design Challenge:
In addition, we have announced the Solar Energy Design Challenge. This contest is open to the public through July 31st. Participants are invited to submit models of existing solar structures or propose new ones. The goal is to get as many people as possible using Energy3D to document existing and/or propose new solar models, in a citizen science type effort. Additional details and participation guidelines are provided on the Solar Energy Design Challenge page. Students do not need to complete a course to participate. The ILO would be helpful in learning how to create models in Energy3D; there are also a number of tutorials available on the Energy3D website.
Energy 3D: http://energy.concord.org/energy3d/
Solar Energy Design: http://vhslearning.org/solar-energy-initiatives
Solar Energy Design Challenge: http://go.thevhs.org/l/86702/2018-05-31/5h1k37