Achievement

The solar demonstration cart has been an invaluable tool for the University of Delaware’s Solar Hydrogen IGERT educational outreach efforts. A team of IGERT students worked with the Newark Center for Creative Learning (NCCL), a local school, to develop this small-scale, hands-on learning tool along with an accessible curriculum for students. NCCL wanted to use their recent 19 kW solar installation as a teaching opportunity for their students and approached IGERT about developing a smaller scale system to give NCCL students a hands-on learning tool with which they could learn about solar power in a fun and safe way. IGERT students have taken the cart to various outreach events on UD's campus and throughout the state. Lesson plans developed for the cart include a design project in which students are taught to think like engineers and look at design challenges from multiple angles; this project culminates in marketing presentations and implementation of student designs using the cart.