Rationale
The Denver conference on the greenhouse effect piqued my interest and led me into the field of environmental education. It is my personal interest and professional background in environmental issues that drives my science curriculum. A lot of my science units focus on current environmental topics, which I integrate in the public school curriculum along with the National Science Standards. I regret that I did not learn about ecology or environmental issues until I was out of college. It is for this reason that I am highly motivated to teach my students about issues such as global warming and renewable energy.
The second reason for teaching a unit on solar energy is my geographic location in the Southwest of the United States. I teach in Santa Fe, New Mexico which is located at 35°N105°W with an elevation of 7,000 ft (2,132 m), making it the highest capitol in the United States [5]. New Mexico is ranked 5 th in the United States for total land area, 121,665 sq. mi (315,194 km2) [6]. This means that we have tremendous potential to generate solar energy. The landscape ranges from wide deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. New Mexico is home to two desert biomes: the Chihuahua desert in the lower half of the state and a high-desert ecosystem made up of piñon-juniper forests in the central part of the state up to the northern half of the state. The elevation ranges from around 2,000 ft up to 13,161 ft at the highest point.The combination of lots of desert landscape and high elevation lends itself to being an ideal land mass for solar power development.
As a teacher of elementary students, I develop lessons that are of high interest to my students and provide relevant hands-on activities that will engage them. Studying renewable energy is important given the current state of the world's climate and our country's dependence on fossil fuels and the near depleted state of oil. The students living in New Mexico have an advantage by having access to many projects across the state that are engaging in solar energy research as well as solar energy production and experimentation. In 2004, a project was initiated by researchers using the most efficient solar technology to construct a new power plant. The prototype for the facility is based in New Mexico and it contains 82 mirrors that focus the Sun's rays to transmit heat energy to an engine filled with hydrogen. As the gas expands and contracts from the heating and cooling, the motion drives pistons which power a generator that creates electricity. This prototype was producing 150 kilowatts of electricity a day, enough to power 40 average households. Using this kind of technology, a farm or ranch 100 sq mi in the southwestern U.S. could possibly provide as much electricity as is needed to power the entire country, according to Stirling Energy Systems, Inc. (SES) general manager Bob Liden [7]. This kind of project is exciting and accessible to my students. The geographic location and the relatively mild and extremely sunny disposition of the state of New Mexico is a favorable working environment for the students' research on solar energy and the construction of a model solar car. The earlier we are able to impress upon our students that they are the future, the sooner they will feel empowered to make positive changes. It is my belief that my students will be able to solve some of the crisis my generation is now faced with because they are getting exposed to current and relevant issues that affect each and every one of us.
Comments: