Abstract

This project describes the effort made to train middle school and high school students about renewable energy, especially solar and wind energy through a sponsored summer camp. Modules are developed over two consecutive years to demonstrate and provide hands-on experience on the working principle of solar cells, automatic direction changing of a solar panel by tracking sunlight with a dual-axis tracker, gathering wind and solar data to commission solar cells and wind turbines, building a circuit and measuring Voltage-Current (V-I) characteristic to analyze the performance of solar cells and working principle of a Die-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the summer camp in promoting renewable energy and engineering as well as increasing their interest in these fields as careers. The analysis based on the survey conducted explores strategies and provides guidelines for designing future camps that may enhance the effectiveness of the summer camp outcomes.

Keywords:Renewable energy education; Summer camp; Arduino; Die-sensitized solar cell; Wind data; Solar data