Solarsaurus: Solar Powered Charging Stations at KCI

Written by: Brooklynn Steeves

At the beginning of the school year, Ms. Hill-Wood and her grade nine period C tech. class, requested a grant from the Sustainable Waterloo Region Youth Climate Action service. They requested $1500 to put towards portable solar chromebook charging stations around the school. Sustainable Waterloo Region service selected this group of young engineers to award the $1500 to, and now their class has made it their responsibility to provide KCI with accessible, free, and solar-powered chromebook charging for all. 

Grade nine student Eveliina Gapakov is a part of Ms. Hill-Wood’s skilled trades tech. class, and she volunteered to speak about her experience partaking in the new Solarsaurus charging project. Eveliina explained that her teacher surprised her class with this idea at the beginning of the school year. She wanted her class to get involved in the KCI community and thought that this solar charging plan would be the perfect way to make a difference and introduce the students to the school. 

Eveliina also mentioned that she was surprised at how quick the award was granted. Ms. Hill-Wood had applied for it through Sustainable Waterloo in August, and the whole class found out a few weeks later, in September, that they had been chosen. 

Eveliina continued by explaining that the technical factors of this project are generally simple. She demonstrated the different pieces they needed to make their design a reality: “So, we have solar panels,” she explained, “and we have batteries. The solar panels will charge the batteries that will charge our chromebooks. And we’re going to put that on a cart that we can move around the school.“ The carts that they are using to charge the chromebooks have three different levels. One level contains slots that will support charging the chromebooks, one level keeps the batteries that are connected to the chargers secure, and one level is a space that holds items that will help the KCI community connect while they wait for their computers to refuel. That level can hold anything from Nutrition for Learning snacks, to survey questions, to board games. Eveliina and her class are hoping that this can not only be a space to recharge and get work done, but can also be a social experience where students can use the board games, ask each other questions, have a quick snack, and bond. 

After being asked how long it would take to build these stations, Eveliina noted that they are already complete. The class had started building them at the beginning of the year as soon as the grant was confirmed. After brainstorming what they were going to do with the grant, Ms. Hill-Wood’s class started researching the pieces that they would need in order to bring their idea to life. Sustainable Waterloo Region helped them buy all of the pieces needed for the carts. Eveliina exclaimed, “And as soon as we got the carts and we had the solar panels and batteries, we put it all together! They were ready.” 

Before the class is able to distribute these around the school, they are looking for an available classroom to store the stations at night. They are in need of a room with enough space and a couple of windows. That way, they can charge the solar powered batteries that will then be hooked up to cables and will charge the chromebooks. 

Once Ms. Hill-Wood told the class that they had been granted the $1500, they were split into groups to come up with an idea that would be possible for their skill levels and also be beneficial for the school. One group came up with the possibility of doing something solar powered, and the plan took off from there. Eveliina mentioned that “It felt like a really big idea. We didn’t think we would actually be able to do it, but the more we looked into it, the more we realized that it was actually doable and it could be really big for our school.”

Eveliina described this work as being a big project and said that they had lots of people contributing to it. The main people in charge of the plan were Ms. Hill-Wood and her grade nine tech. class, along with Sustainable Waterloo Region who helped with the grant. Some other people that were a part building these charging stations were KCI’s co-primes, Madi Arndt and Chiamaka Emeadi, the electrical tech. class, who helped out with figuring out the solar power and solar energy work, and many teachers from around the school. Eveliina concluded, “It was actually a ton of people that came together to work on this.” 

Like Eveliina, Ms. Hill-Wood, the supervising teacher of the SolarSaurus charging project, gave The Edge her input on this project and how she manifested their beginning idea into the initiative it has become. 

Ms. Hill-Wood began by explaining that she did not actually apply for the $1500 grant in the beginning. Having previously worked with a service called Reep Green, she recognized them when they reached out. They explained to Ms. Hill-Wood that they were partnering with Sustainable Waterloo Region, and were wondering if she might have a tech. class that would be interested in receiving a grant to put towards a sustainable project. She accepted the offer, received the money in August, and waited to meet her classes so she could figure out which class would be the right one to use the grant. She explained to Reep Green and Sustainable Waterloo that she had found the right fit, and the organizations asked to come in and run a few workshops for the class. Ms. Hill-Wood explained, “It wasn’t until the first workshop that I found out that the grant was $1500, so I was really lucky. It was really through prior experience with Reep Green that this opportunity came about.” 

After the first few workshops, Ms. Hill-Wood’s grade nine tech. class learned that they had until October 31st to come up with an idea and finish the project. The 31st also happened to be one of KCI’s community fest days. The class decided to put those two deadlines together and have the carts done to present at the community fair. With the newfound deadlines, the grade nines had to work together in order to come up with an idea that would put the grant to good use and also be possible for their skill levels. They looked on the Sustainable Waterloo website to come up with some ideas. 

In another workshop, Sustainable Waterloo Region did a type of trial run with the students using their ideas. “It was really to be a student-led initiative. So, it wasn’t any of us directing in any areas, it was what the students wanted to do,” Ms. Hill-Wood described. By the end of that workshop, Ms. Hill-Wood’s class had brainstormed a list of ten initiatives to bring to the school. One of the options was related to solar powered charging, and, after a vote with the class, that was the idea that got the most interest. 

The class then needed to explore solar energy and “‘investigate solar-friendly areas of the school” for the stations. With the help of Ms. Hill-Wood, Sustainable Waterloo and a co-op student from the University of Guelph, the tech class was able to bring together their learning and create a solar charging masterpiece to share with the school. 

 From this project, Sustainable Waterloo is also looking to collect data. They want to see how many people are using the chargers and “how much energy would be diverted out of the grid and be generated through the solar panels.” The idea is to find sustainable ways that people around the school can use solar powered energy instead of energy coming from the electrical grid. They did one test to figure out the speed of the chargers. After charging one chromebook with a regular cord and an outlet, and one chromebook with their solar charged battery, they found that both computers were getting the same amount of charge at the same speed. Ms. Hill-Wood explained, “We plugged some chromebooks into the outlets and plugged some into the battery, and we found out we were getting the same speed of charge for both. So when we were done it wasn’t like ‘Oh, it’s not as fast or doesn't get as much,’ it was on par with what we were seeing from the outlets.” 

Moving forward, Ms. Hill-Wood is excited to announce that this project has influenced some ideas of future plans her class could pursue. She would also really like to see some future collaboration with other classes, clubs, and teams. Whether that involves helping with advertising and promoting something, or maybe building a device or object for them. 

These stations are just the start of connecting the school environment and offering a sustainable solution to ensuring all students can use their chromebooks. Ms. Hill-Wood hopes other projects and plans can spiral off of this one and help the KCI community in their own ways. 

Make sure to look around the school for these one-of-a-kind solar powered charging stations and play a game, make some new friends, or grab a snack while you recharge your chromebook.