< Previous Section (Works Cited)
Appendix:
Letter to Superintendent:
Superintendent David Piperato,
Lafayette College comes to you with an opportunity for a mutually beneficial collaboration for the first year students and the students enrolled in the Easton Public School District. The collaboration is centered around education for renewable and sustainable energy sources.
Each first year student is required to take a first year seminar during their first semester at Lafayette College. There are an array of different topics for seminars under different departments at Lafayette College. Until now, Lafayette has not offered a first year seminar under the Engineering Studies division of the engineering department. Engineering Studies is a unique interdisciplinary major where students study the relationship between engineering, technology, and society. This new FYS under the Engineering Studies division offers an introduction to the major through projects utilizing the Kirby Solar Array, a newly built solar array atop Lafayette’s sports center. A goal for one of the projects in the FYS is for Lafayette students to facilitate solar energy education to grade school students enrolled in the Easton Public School district.
As educators, Lafayette College and the Easton Public School system have a responsibility to help spread the knowledge of sustainable energy solutions. Scholars argue that, in order for the United States to transition to more solar energy, solar education is imperative. As educators of future policy makers and business leaders, Lafayette has a responsibility to educate students to make informed decisions regarding energy and policy beyond Lafayette College. As educators of the general public, contributing members of society, and future voters, it is the responsibility of the Easton public school district to educate students on solar energy. Scholars recognize the resources that engineering curriculums have regarding solar energy education. Lafayette College hopes to share these resources to help facilitate education to Easton school children, as scholars also recognize the opportunity to develop solar energy education at a lower level.
Seeing that this is a niche topic of study, the Lafayette students of the FYS can utilize the resources at their disposal to help facilitate lessons exposing grade school students to solar energy. One of the most obvious resources at their disposal is the Professor of the course, Professor Nicodemus, whose research focuses on solar thermal technology. Another obvious resource is the Kirby Solar Array. Lastly, FYS students will have eleven weeks of solar energy curriculum, preparing them to help educate and engage the grade school students.
We are open to feedback and, hence the nature of collaboration, hope to gain insight from your perspective on how we can make this a more engaging and meaningful experience for the k-12 students. While we hope you are open to engaging in the opportunity, we also hope to provide clarity regarding the expectations for the collaboration. Firstly, there will be three separate hour-long solar education sessions. These sessions will take place in mid-November/Early December. The k-12 students will bus to Lafayette and each session will take place on top of the Solar Array for a more hands on, meaningful, and memorable learning experience. Before going on top of the Array, the school children will be educated on the safety and behavior conduct expectations. Once on top of the solar array, four FYS students will break school students into groups and start facilitating a lesson that they have prepared ahead of time. Each one of the sessions will take place on a Thursday in November from 11:00AM-12:15AM. Each of the three sessions will be a different group of students. Ideally, each Easton student group is under thirty-five students, engaging in solar energy education with approximately one hundred students than before.
Before the start of the Semester, Lafayette would work with heads within the Easton School District to appropriately choose the three different student groups. Most importantly, we hope the student groups will come from classrooms with teachers willing and able to work with the FYS students to facilitate the education sessions. Each FYS student would be paired with a teacher of each student group. The FYS student contacts the assigned teacher to better understand the comprehension ability of the student group in order to work with the Professor aiding the FYS students to make effective lesson plans. More specifically, the FYS students will work with the teachers to help brainstorm potential lessons that the teachers of the student groups can do in order to expose the students to sustainability and solar energy leading up to the field trip to the array.
While this exposure to solar energy can happen at any age, we recommend, for the purposes of this particular collaboration, that the student groups are grades ten and below, as these will be first year students facilitating the lessons. We also recommend that the pre-exposure to the Solar Array field trip is integrated into the predetermined science curriculum of their grade.
We hope this proposal helped you gain a better understanding of the potential for this collaboration. We hope that you will consider this. We welcome the opportunity to meet to discuss in further detail.
Warmest Regards,
Lafayette College
Course Syllabus:
Learning Outcomes: Students will gain exposure to sustainability and solar energy through a socio-technical lens while developing their writing competency. Specifically, students will explore the different dimensions of solar energy including social, political, technical, and economic facets while grounding these ideas through Lafayette’s very own array. At the conclusion of the semester, after experiencing the importance of solar education, first year students will work with Easton Public School district to extend the knowledge they have gained to the next generation of contributing citizens.
Below is an overview and breakdown of each class that will make up the fall semester
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 1 | Overview of Course Syllabus | Class Discussion Due: Read Lafayette’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) | Intro to the course and Lafayette Sustainability |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 2 | Climate Change: Principles and Science Due: 2 Page Synthesis on CAP | Climate Change: Predictions and Responses | Intro to Climate Change |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 3 | Introduction to Renewables (Wind, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydro) Due: Reading on U.S. renewable energy | Introduction to Renewables (Solar) | Intro to Renewable Energy |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 4 | Introduction to Solar Energy Policy Due: Reading on solar policy and current events | Class Discussion & Introduction to Project Due: Reading on solar policy and current events | Energy and Policy |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 5 | Lecture on the construction and maintenance of solar arrays Due: Paper on Solar Energy and Policy | Visit Kirby Solar Array – Discussion on decision to implement the solar array/the construction of it | Energy and Construction/Implementation |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 6 | Solar Panels in Industry Due: Reading on Economics of Solar Panels | Solar Panels in Industry Due: Reading on Economics of Solar Panels | Energy and Economics |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 7 | Intro to Environmental Justice & Solar EnergyDue: Environmental Justice Assignment | Community Engagement and Engineering Projects | Environmental Justice/ Community Relations |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 8 | Due: Paper Synthesizing Community Relations Reading | Due: Reading on the impact of education on solar energy | Solar Energy Education |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 9 | Guest Lecture: Delicia Nahman Quiz: Lafayette Sustainability | Guest Lecture: Delicia Nahman Quiz: Kirby Solar Array | Solar and sustainability at Lafayette |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 10 | Technical: calculations on how much energy Kirby array produced | Introduce Project: Assign Easton School Teacher to FYS Students | Applied Lessons |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 11 | Education Workshop with Prof. Novello Due: Contact the teachers of the classes you will be working with. come to class with potential topics to introduce solar energy | Education Workshop with Prof. Novello Due: Revised Lesson Plan for School Kids | Educational Tools |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 12 | TBD | Meet with School Kids | Collection of Solar Array Data & Meeting with School Kids |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 13 | TBD | Meet with School Kids | Collection of Solar Array Data & Meeting with School Kids |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 14 | TBD | Meet with School Kids | Collection of Solar Array Data & Meeting with School Kids |
| Tuesday | Thursday | Topic of the Week | |
| Week 15 | Class discussion Solar Array Data Findings | Due: 5 Page Reflection on Course Project with Easton Public Schools | Conclusion |
Table 1: “Daily Breakdown of Course Content” (As created by Team Solar FYS).