Elementary School Students Crowdfund Their Own Solar-Powered Classroom

A class of elementary school students in Durham, North Carolina recently set out on a mission to make their classroom 100% solar powered. The fourth grade class started a Kickstarter campaign: Our Solar Powered Classroom for that purpose, and they greatly exceeded their goal. The class has stated that the extra funds will be used to purchase a larger system, which will then sell back electricity to the community. As you’ll see below, the class whizzed past their initial goal.

 
The class, dubbed in the campaign as “Aaron’s Class,” had recently begun learning about the modern uses of energy/electricity and the sources and systems that provide it. And in the process of learning about this, it became apparent that the class was very excited by solar energy. So they created the goal of trying to set up their own solar panel system.

“We believe in the sun and would like to fundraise to get enough money to buy solar panels for our classroom so we do not have to use any electricity from the power plant. We have been doing research on how much electricity we use to power our classroom so we know how many solar panels we need, and how much money it will cost. We will figure out how to design and build a solar array, and with help we can make our classroom off the grid. We’re really excited about teaching others in our school and community about the power of solar energy.” -Aaron’s Class

The original Kickstarter campaign goal was $800, but they have already raised $5300 dollars! So rather than simply purchasing a photovoltaic system for their classroom, they have decided to build a bigger system that can also generate electricity for their community.

Cool deal. And an interesting use of Kickstarter. Hopefully the experience will translate into further interest in renewables for some of the students.

Image Credit: Aaron Sebens/Screen Capture