Solar Powered Battery Rechargers

Subject Area

This activity has been designed for a wide variety of subject and curriculum areas. It can form part of any unit dealing with electricity, the sun, solar power, recycling, product design, or any course or unit which uses electricity or electrically powered instruments. Suggested subjects include 9-12 Technical Studies at all learning levels; Science and Physics grades 10 and 11; Visual Arts: Special Series grades 10-12.

Learning Outcomes

Teaching, learning and evaluation will focus on the student’s ability to:

• Discuss and formulate an opinion on the value of solar energy;
• Construct a solar powered battery charger;
  
• Formulate strategies for planning solutions to design problems.
  

Classroom Development

1. Have a general classroom discussion on the pros and cons of disposable versus rechargeable batteries, followed by a discussion considering the relative merits of solar powered battery chargers versus battery chargers powered by energy from wall receptacles. If students are having trouble developing ideas, it may be advisable to start students in small groups, directing them to brainstorm their ideas on paper and then present them to the class for discussion.
   
2. Students will then design a solar powered battery charger on paper, based on the following criteria:
   • Whether they are producing a working prototype, a one-of-a-kind product, or merely a nonfunctioning industrial design;
   • Whether the entire product must be produced from post-consumer material, or whether new material can be substituted;
   • Whether the charger is suitable for only one type of battery or various sizes;
   • Whether the design will include other criteria that the students think to be important.
   
3. Students should build their recharger in three stages. First, a design must be completed on paper and submitted to the teacher. Second, students should create a nonfunctioning prototype to gauge usability, ergonomics, aesthetics, and design flaws. Peers will review the prototypes at this stage and provide the designers with written feedback according to student determined evaluation criteria. At this point students will need to be taught how to use a soldering iron. Depending on your school, the electronics teacher or physics teacher could be contacted for assistance. An alternative would be to have classes that already have experience with soldering techniques complete this phase of the activity.
   
4. Finally, students will execute a working model which will be evaluated in terms of the extent to which the student incorporated peer-review comments and suggestions, as well as self-evaluation and the successful functioning of the model.
   

Materials

Old ‘plug in’ battery rechargers, solar cells, various electrical components that can be scavenged for parts.

Resources

• Note that kits are always more expensive than putting it together yourself. If you’re not an electronics whiz, people in your school are. Ask them for a circuit diagram and information. Make team teaching work in your class.
  
• Active Electronics Retail/Future Electronics Wholesale. Ottawa: 1023 Merivale Road, Ottawa, Ontario, K1Z 6A6, (613) 728-7900. Toronto: 100 Lombard Street, M5C 1M3, (416) 367-2911.
  
• Electro Sonic Inc., 1100 Gordon Baker Road, Willowdale, Ontario, M2H 3B3. Order department: (416) 494-1555. Call for their catalogue. This is a source for new materials.
  
• Electrosource. Mississauga: Lakeview Publications. (905) 624-8100. Information on distributors across Canada. See section 2405 is for instructional kits.
  
• EfstonScience Inc. 3350 Dufferin St., Toronto, M6A 3A4 (416) 787-4581.
  
• Fisher Scientific, 1200 Denison Street, Unionville, L3R 8G6, (905) 479-8700. For parts and lab equipment.
  
• Active Surplus Annex, 347 Queen St. W., Toronto, M5V 2A4, (416) 593-0967. This is a wonderful “browse at your own risk” store.
  
• Scientific American magazine
  
• Popular Mechanics magazine.
• Various school science materials distributors can be found in catalogues lurking in the science department of your school.
  
  

Further Development

• Students can attempt to construct other solar powered things. Some examples are: fans, walkmans, portable computers, cellular phones, water purifiers, robots, and toys.
  
• Check with the Electrical Engineering Department of the university closest to you. It may have students working on solar power projects. Perhaps you can entice a graduate student to visit your class with some samples of solar power at work. This may encourage students to follow careers in science, and may be of particular interest to teachers seeking ways of interesting female students in engineering.
  

Cross-disciplinary Links

• All the tech studies, science, physics, and visual arts classes can work on aspects of this assignment, possibly coordinated by an environmental science/studies class.

Student Guide

What’s this activity doing here in front of me?
You may be seeing this activity as part of a unit dealing with electricity, the sun, solar power, recycling, product design, or any course or unit which uses electricity or electrically powered instruments. No matter where you find this activity, it involves the conceptualization, design, and construction of a solar powered battery recharger.

Learning Outcomes

This activity gives you the opportunity to:

• Discuss and formulate an opinion on the value of solar energy;
  
• Construct your own solar powered battery charger from recycled materials.
  

Classroom Procedure

Before you do any activity that involves new materials, you must make yourself aware of safety procedures. Remind your teacher, if she forgets, to go over safety procedures.

1. First of all, have a class discussion about disposable and rechargeable batteries:
   • Why do we need batteries in the first place?
   • Why should we bother with rechargeables?
   • What is the advantage of a solar recharger over one that you plug into the wall?
   • Remember, these are not just environmental questions. What are the social, cultural, political, and economic impacts of what you are planning?
   
2. Make sure that everyone has all the information that is needed to understand the major issues and the rationale for this assignment. If you don’t understand something, ASK.
   
3. The next step is then to design a solar powered battery charger on paper. You must plan your project based on the following criteria:
   • whether you are producing a working prototype or a one-of-a-kind product;
   • whether the entire product must be produced from post-consumer material, or whether new material can be substituted;
   • will the charger be suitable for only one type of battery or various sizes;
   • whether you can discuss this with your peers and teacher, and come to some agreement.
   
4. You should build your recharger in three stages. First, a design must be completed on paper and submitted to the teacher for approval. Second, you should create a nonfunctioning prototype to gauge usability, ergonomics, aesthetics, and design flaws. Get your peers to review the prototypes at this stage, and make sure that they provide you with written feedback according to the evaluation model criteria developed by the class. Finally, execute a working model which will be evaluated on how you incorporated peer-review comments and suggestions, self-evaluation, and the successful functioning of the model. The evaluation should be based on whether you can plan something and then do it to the best of your ability.
   

Materials

Old ‘plug in’ battery rechargers, solar cells, various electrical components. Scrounge for what you can get. Of course you can buy a kit, but then you are relying on someone else’s ideas, not your own. And anyway, scrounging for old parts is both fun and a conservation of resources.