GT Times

**Please note that while we strive to include as many students and their work as possible, we cannot promise to get everyone in to each issue. Thank you for your understanding!

For our first project of the year, we began by learning about types of energy; specifically renewable and non-renewable energy. This lead us to further learn about solar energy and its role as a renewable resource. As we see when we pass homes and businesses with solar panels, this is how we have learned to harness the power of the sun to produce energy.

To show how we can use the Sun's energy to power things, each student made a solar bug that was powered by a small solar panel as a warm-up activity. Each student chose a specific critter and followed the directions to make their solar bug.

Once constructed, we took them outside, and their bug showed them how solar panels work. When exposed to the Sun, their bug began to vibrate and move about on a smooth surface. Check out some of their creations!

They also made bracelets with seemingly plain beads. However, what Miss Hunt and Mrs. Pettit didn’t tell them was that the beads were solar! These beads change color when exposed to invisible ultraviolet light from the sun. Otherwise, they remain colorless as they are not affected by visible light like from fluorescent or incandescent light bulbs. These young solar scientists are well on their way to better understanding the sun and how we can use it in our everyday lives!

“Hello, Houston? We have a problem. It is zero minus one hour and counting, and we have developed a malfunction with our Planetary Rover vehicle. Can you ship in a replacement as soon as possible?”

The students received this message and were given the following Engineering Task: To design a working vehicle which is capable of traveling over rough ground and is powered by solar energy! After discussing the problem, they had to brainstorm and design a planetary rover that would be build using K'NEX and a solar panel. Within the design that they had to submit to NASA (A.K.A. Miss Hunt and Mrs. Pettit!), they had to explain the design, its components and how it will work. During this planning, they also had to answer the following:

• How many wheels will it have?
• How will the wheels be fastened to the body?
• How will you incorporate the solar panel?
• How do you need to build it to ensure it is durable?

• How can you safely and securely attach the solar panel to the vehicle?
• At what angle does the solar panel need to be to achieve maximum efficiency ?

After their designs were approved, they were able to gather their materials and begin to build. To be sure they understood the task, Miss Hunt showed them the rover she built so they were able to reference it during their construction. Many of the groups soon learned that their design and their actual build could be quite different. This was the Engineering Design Process in action!

Over several class periods, their planetary rovers began to take shape! Check some of them out here!

Some of our finished planetary rovers are shown here!

After SEVERAL days of waiting for the sun to shine, we finally got the opportunity to test our planetary rovers on Wednesday, December 18th! Through this process, our students definitely got a better understanding of how scientists feel when they anticipate positive results only to find issues that need to be addressed in their experimentation. Unfortunately for our scientists, they could only speculate how they could fix the problems experienced by their rovers as we did not have enough time to allow them to make modifications. On the bright side, though, there were several groups who successfully constructed a working rover and NASA officials are thrilled for them!