What does Solar-Active do?
“Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I’ll remember.
Let me do it, I’ll understand.”
“Dígame, yo lo olvidaré. Muéstremelo, lo recordaré.
Déjeme hacerlo, yo lo comprenderé.”
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British-built Zephyr S
The British-built Zephyr S has smashed the existing endurance record for un-refuelled, unmanned flight by staying aloft for 25 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes using our amorphous silicon solar cell technology.
Model Solar Plane Challenge
Stephen Winkworth’s publisher friend Peter Usborne came up with the challenge to design a model plane powered by photovoltaic cells early in 2017.
Read the article
ECO-EXPO
High Storrs School hosted their first ECO-EXPO in March 2019, sponsored by Randstad. Solar-Active facilitated discussions on:
- Health and Well Being and the importance of Trees and wildlife in our urban environment and effects of LED street lighting systems.
- Consequences on our Health, Environment of Vegetarians, Vegans, Meat-Eaters and other dietary choices, and
- Choosing products based on the embodied energy in manufacturing supply chain and energy rating
Workshops / CPD
We can put together workshops tailored to your needs to demonstrate the applicability of renewable energy and sustainability topics in achieving National Curriculum Science and Design & Technology outcomes at primary and secondary levels. Our senior trainer has had many years’ experience in this field and is appropriately qualified and SRB registered.
Sustainability & Climate Change
Reducing your energy requirement not only saves you money, it reduces your carbon footprint to limit climate change and conserve resources for future generations.
Inland Revenue Tax Benefits
A scheme introduced by the Inland Revenue allows any individual to nominate a charity to receive their tax repayments as a donation. For the purposes of the scheme the Schools and Homes Energy Education Projects unique code is AAP70PG and will be listed on the Inland Revenue’s website. For more information on how to nominate The Schools and Homes Energy Education Project, please contact the Inland Revenue for an application form.
Solar Cells
Solar cells
UNI-SOLAR® flexible triple junction multi-layer amorphous silicon thin-film high performance cells developed originally by Stanford Ovshinsky and his colleagues at Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
How Solar Roofs Work – An educational animated blog post detailing how solar roofs transfer energy from the sun and provide power to a house.
Hot House
Encourage your students to investigate concepts of heat transfer through our Education curriculum resource we have developed called the Hot House. It is designed for conducting practical experiments in thermal and acoustic science.
Conduct practical enquiries with the Hot House, a bespoken science based resource to investigate physics concepts of heat transfer at KS3/4. View video
Sheffield/South Yorkshire Listening/Focusing Group
We currently meet in one of the Pods in the Reading room at Sheffield Central Library for max of 2 hour sessions on Wednesday evening starting 5.45pm and Saturday starting 12.30pm. The group is open to anyone. There is no fee. Must register to attend. Listening and Focusing skills can give people the means to delve in and discover what action they could take in decision making, problem solving, creativity, self-assessment and conflict resolution. Visit our website.
Contact for further information or to join the group. View this link for additional details.
Solar car design challenge
Take the design challenge! Our range of solar powered kits help teach design, maths, physics and practical skills in a fun way which will motivate and engage students.
Stenden University solar car case study
A national solar race, combined with activities for youngsters and children also was held at this time.
Netherlands mini solar boat challenges 2019
Mini solar boat challenges
Annual General Meeting
The Joint AGM of Schools & Homes Energy Education Project/Solar-Active & Recovery Insulation was held on 22nd May 2019:
The Challenge of a Zero Carbon Lifestyle: Bigfoot – Little Foot – Barefoot
Engage Science Done Right Conference
Mastery assessment or looking to make your schemes more engaging. David Garlovsky provided a session at the Science Done Right conference, from ENGAGE and science upd8, to help teachers upgrade their practice, implement a 5-year big ideas curriculum, mastery assessment or looking to make schemes more engaging. Saturday 11 March 2017, Open University, Milton Keynes. Presentation
Virtual Car Assembly
Solar STEM curriculum resources
We offer a range of educational resources, such as kits, components and teaching aids to contribute to the latest curriculum demands.
Virtual Car
Try your hand at building and racing our virtual car – it works in the dark!
ASE National Conference Birmingham 2019
SESSION 1: Sustainability & skills in science
Hot House – NEW Resource rich in a context based approach around physics, energy and thermal transfers. Develop practical skills and test content knowledge at KS3 to better prepare students for KS4.
Report on Session 1 2019: Sustainability & skills in science
SESSION 2: SOLAR-ACTIVE STEM SESSION – PLUGGING INTO THE SUN
Gain knowledge and skills in renewable energy technologies. Build solar car, boat, and mini-water pump. Investigative and problem solving approach to achieve outcomes in Science, ICT, Sustainable Development and D&T
Report of sessions in 2018 where 15 people attended from: Malta, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Norway, China and Hong Kong.
What does Solar-Active do?
Solar-Active – Schools & Homes Energy Education Project, is an independent not-for-profit company and registered charity.
We have developed unique STEM-based educational resources, workshops and projects for young engineering minds in sustainable development, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, as well as a range of working demonstrations to gain an understanding how solar energy works.
Sales & Components
See our Shop to see our range of kits and components that can be used as part of practical sessions led by a teacher or our trainer to allow students to practice construction for themselves and learn engineering and scientific principal first-hand. Take the design challenge and work out how you’re going to build yours!
Let there be darkness
LED security lights effects on trees and green city landscape:
Human and wildlife circadian rhythms, mental well-being, road safety and the view of our night sky
A paper written by David Garlovsky (BSc, MSc, Certificate in Social Phenomenology)
was presented at the International SEEDS Conference 2017: Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design for Society Healthy Environments, Buildings and Spaces, Leeds Beckett University, UK
The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the potential impact on urban and rural areas of blue-rich LEDs to ensure that city designers and arborists make informed decisions about the choice of street and road lighting. There is a growing trend for urban areas in the UK, USA and elsewhere to change over-roadway and residential lighting from high-pressure sodium [HPS] to blue-rich LEDs, often simply on the basis of saving energy, yet without health- or environmental-impact assessments. Energy-saving measures need to be linked to health and ecology considerations.
The views presented in this paper are from a historical perspective based on research conducted in 1974 by the author and the Chicago Audubon Society in the City of Chicago and from a recent literature review of research. The research showed that blue-rich LEDs’ effect human health and well-being, wildlife circadian rhythms, road safety and the view of our night sky. It is crucial for local communities be involved in deciding how streetscapes, including trees and lighting, are planned, managed and maintained.
Learning through trial and error
Inno-Therm®
Inno-Therm®/Metisse® is an ‘eco’ thermal and acoustic insulation made from recycled cotton/denim fibres. Recovery Insulation has manufactured Inno-Therm® and as a social enterprise donates % of profit to the Schools & Homes Energy Education Project to conduct renewable and energy/cost saving activities.
School/Home Energy Cost and Saving
No one like paying utility bills. Our website has information and advice to help you control your energy costs by limiting mains energy usage and tapping into the free energy sources provided by nature.
RISE Award 2016
Design support by James Wigglesworth for Solar-Active received a RISE AWARD 2016 (Research-Innovation-Sustainablility-Enterprise) for the poster submitted in the Education and Training category: Up-skilling the UK workforce in Renewable Energy Technologies sponsored by Knauf Insulation. See the poster, key points and certificate.
Energy Calculator
Use the Energy calculator to estimate how much money you could save by changing the type of lamp you use.
Trees
SOON TO COME: Fitting the planting, identification and care of trees into the Curriculum: Specifications from the National Curriculum KS3 &4 and STEM.
More information