Solar Kids

A couple of weeks ago, Kendra, who was working for a kids camp here in Tucson, asked me if I’d like to demo some solar for the kids there. Last Friday, I headed out with some borrowed equipment from the store, including solar-electric modules, and a Sun Oven solar cooker.

I bought some little tiny panels, and a couple of motors. And I built a “pump-in-a-bucket,” which is one of my favorite demos. It uses a small bilge pump to run a fountain in a bucket, powered directly using solar-electric modules.

We cooked chocolate chip cookies in the Sun Oven and a homebuilt cooker belonging to the camp. The kids had a good time shading the panels and seeing the pump stop. I also hooked two little panels to a small motor, and let the kids do some “spin art” with some cards and dry-erase markers that I happened to have. Here are a couple of photos.