Well, we are at the end of the semester and we now have the task of designing an experiment. We were divided in teams of three, now my team is formed by Evan Gilchrist, Brittany M Schissler, and me Mauro Martin. At first we where all a little bit “lost”, being able to choose any experiment we wanted kind of blinded us to the different options.
After talking about what each one would like to do, what would they feel more comfortable researching and talking about. Since we have, in class talk a lot about energy and renewable sources apart from various research blogs and experiments also done in class, we thought it would be pretty neat to do it about renewable energy. After doing some research we came across the idea of creating a motor indirectly powered by a solar panel. (Solar panel charges battery – battery makes the motor spin)
I know, I know, you have probably seen this before probably around a local science fair, etc. But we are not just gonna leave it there, as an economics mayor i though about giving it and little twist. Although it may seem impossible today in the world there is 1,600 million people without access to electricity and 2,400 million people are still cooking and heating their homes with basic energy sources such as coal, wood, biomass and manure. Approximately 85% of these people live in rural areas.Adding to this, as an economics mayor, that china is increasingly improving their solar panel production making them pretty affordable, we would like to tie both things together.
We don’t really know yet in which direction we are going to go, but for now as our first brainstorm, we though about coming up with a way all this third world countries could have some improvement in their human development, since normal energy is almost impossible to have in some parts of the country cause economically is too expensive. See if with the new innovation on creating renewable energy could help in some way.
Main points:
Improved access to sustainable energy services is necessary for human development and the realization of most economic activities.
And if you add climate change which have caused droughts ever more extended in some African countries
Without energy there is no propulsion systems and the water sources are so far people, mainly women, are forced to walk for hours.
Actual Experiment: (would look something close to this)
Materials:
- Solar Panel
- dc electrical motor
- Spinner
- Wooden Dowel (about 1/2″ diameter)
- Drill to make a hole in the dowel
- Cardboard (about 6″ x 6″)
- Paper Image
- Glue