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I just found an article that changes.the.game for solar energy.
Solar energy? Don't we already have solar panels? I see them all over my town.
Well, apparently solar panels have been criticized for their inefficiency. They don't face the sun for most of the day and so much energy is lost.
Until............
researchers (engineers! engineers!) at UCLA have discovered a way to harness the suns power in a whole new way.
By using......
....sunflowers?
Yes! Sunflowers.
Sunflowers follow the sun through the day (hence the name). This is called phototropism.
Researchers were inspired by the sunflower's ability to maximize the energy from the sun and they created their own synthetic phototrophic material.
Then they formed this material into rods -much like the sunflower stem.
It turns out these little rods can be put in all sorts of environments- some are even waterproof.
The goal of these researchers is to someday coat solar panels so that the rods can follow the light while they store energy in the panels battery.
I chose this article because of the engineering focus. I have been thinking a lot about how to engage kids in engineering and how to approach the task of teaching these skills. This article highlighted, to me, the importance of engineers in an increasingly tech world. This breakthrough was made by a team of researchers who were one somebody's 4th grade student. Some teacher or professor must have inspired them along their path. One day in the future, we may have these little sun seeking rods secured on every roof. This invention has the potential to free us from fossil fuels and stop the damage we are doing to our planet.
This topic is related to classroom discourse because it shows a great solution to a complicated problem. The researchers were inspired by a design in nature and they applied it to technology. This article could spark a lot of discussion about how the natural world can inspire a solution to an everyday problem.
I think I could use this article in a science lesson. Students could identify traits of other living things and think of novel applications of those traits.
This article reminded me of a video I posted waaaaay back in September.
This article and video could be the beginning to a really memorable and impactful inquiry lesson that would hopefully inspire a new generation of problem solvers.
