montrose

On the Move with Renewable Energy

Henrico Learner Profile (HLP) Attributes & Skills

5th Grade: Science, STEM, Reading, and Math

DLIS: Innovator Designer

AASL: Inquire, Explore, and Create

Learning EXPERIenCE

Students at Montrose collaborated to explore deeper connections between renewable energies and the world around them. They learned about non renewable vs renewable energy, then researched about how solar panels came to be created and the way they are used today. They applied this knowledge by designing, building, and testing different solar panels cars they built. These students will share what they learned and the new ideas that developed through this experience at the Henrico 21 exhibition. 

What the student(s) like about this experience: 

"My favorite thing about this was the science involved because I love science. It was really cool seeing how far solar cars as a renewable energy have come today!" - Tayla

"I really liked building and testing the cars because then you could see if it worked or not and try to fix it." - Marcell

"I enjoyed the collaboration together when building the cars. It reminds me of my dad when he used to work on cars." - Victoria

"I liked being able to go outside to use the sun's energy and race the cars. It was awesome to see how our builds worked out." - Imani 

"I liked how we collaborated and all took turns throughout the process of making decisions on our designs and see how well each car turned out." - Kaliyah

What the teachers like about this experience: 

"Students generated authentic questions from conversation with each other on renewable resources that led to great research. They were intrigued by original historical patents showing the first solar panels and amazed what can be done with them now when looking at prototypes for solar cars today." - Ms. Driver

"This project was a great hands-on way for our students to experience renewable energy first-hand. Not only did students get to explore solar power, but they also used their design thinking skills planning, building and redesigning their own solar racer. This unit brought so much together- collaboration, experimentation, engineering and creativity. That’s what made this so great! " - Ms. Allen

Additional Pictures/Media/ARTIFACTS

Students learned about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.

Students collaborated to build their first solar powered vehicle following a set of directions.

Students had to problem solve together when either their two model cars did not work as intended.

There was a lot of excitement from the students when testing and racing the solar energy cars.

H21 Montrose 2023.mp4

Check out our video of how each car performed and what obsticales we ran into along the way!

Thank you to the innovators that helped make this experience possible: