In place of last week’s class, a fair number of students gathered together to make the windy walk to the Museum of Science, with the intention of collecting information to help our respective group experiments. After entering the museum, Phil Sommer and myself sought out the energy sustainability portion of the museum and bee-lined for the small corner dedicated to solar energy. While most of the hands-on displays were intended to educate adolescents on how solar energy is collected, we were mainly drawn to one activity in
particular that was meant to resemble a house donned with solar panels; as the text in Fig. 1 explains, the angle of incoming sunlight greatly affects the amount of solar energy collected within the panels. The activity station’s instructions told us to place the magnetic, spatula-like photovoltaic panels on either Point A, Point B, or Point C of the “house” and measure the energy collected for the Sun angles in the Morning, Noon, and the Afternoon. In the bottom image, Phil records the outputted number revealing the energy collected from Point B at Noon. The outcome of our experiment with this activity proved that in order for a panel to collect the highest amount of solar energy, the photovoltaic panel must be place in coordination to the incoming angle of the Sun. Relating this to our group experiment, we should ensure that the reflective surface of our solar oven is positioned at an angle in relation to the Sun, thereby allowing the internal portion of the oven to absorb a higher level of solar energy. After finishing with this solar activity, we were disappointed to find that the Museum of Science did not offer more displays relevant to our experiment and solar energy in general. We continued to use our admission to peruse the other sections of the museum, finding ourselves in the way of many small children amid our search for anything relating to our solar oven experiment.
