PurePoint Energy takes a trip to Samuel Staples Elementary School!

On April 12-14th, PurePoint Energy paid a visit to six classes of eager second graders excited to learn about possibilities in renewable energy. The students were quick to differentiate between the miniature wind turbine and the large solar panel presented at the front of their classroom, just as they were confident that such a large solar panel would surely produce more energy than a small wind turbine-especially with the calm weather outside.

After coming up with some locations that we thought would be sunny and not-so-sunny, we set out on a mission. It was critical that we first learn the use of a multimeter, which would tell us how much power we were producing. There were many helpers involved in this process as we first measured the Volts, and then Amps being produced. A few mathematician/scientists in the crowd were quick to point out that all we had to do was multiply the volts by the amps to get WATTS! As we repeated this procedure in a few different spots, a small but noticeable difference was apparent when we took the panel out onto the completely unshaded soccer fields-the lack of shading provided solid access for the sun's rays to power our solar panel! As we always made sure to point the solar panel directly at the sun...it was clear that more sun=more power!

At the end of the day, the PurePoint staff had a great time taking a break from work to talk with young econeers about the importance of renewable energy in today's world. Hopefully they will each remember and take this lesson in renewable energy to heart after seeing firsthand the shocking (for a second grader) and powerful renewable resources that Earth has to offer.