New School Year, New Look

Welcome to the new-look Solar 4R Schools program! As you can see, we’ve been busy around here giving our website and newsletter a facelift.  We’ve added several new features to our site at solar4rschools.org, including giving teacher and project champions the ability to add photos, videos and edit text on their home page. Teachers can also download activity guides straight from the new site and join the Teachers’ Lounge to discuss renewable energy education.

This new site capped off a great year where we completed more than 50 projects; more than twice the number of projects than were completed just a year ago! These elementary, middle and high schools have a combined enrollment of more than 30,000 students, bringing the program totals to more than 130 projects complete across the nation with more than 50,000 students reached.

Thank you for being a part of this growing program!

Just as the number of projects increased in 2009, so too did the commitment of schools, teachers such as yourself and funders to make each installation a unique learning tool for their students.

A couple of highlights:

At Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles, California, hundreds of students and teachers welcomed a pair of stars from the hit reality TV show, American Idol at their solar celebration. American Idol contestants Anoop (Anoop Dogg) Desai and Lil Rounds showed they still had a large following even though they had recently been eliminated from the program as they mingled with students, signed autographs and test drove model solar cars given to them during a dedication ceremony for the school’s new 1.36-kilowatt solar-electric system. View photos of the event here.

Music was also on the minds of students at the German American School of Portland — a preschool through 5th-grade German-immersion school in Beaverton, Ore – as they proved that solar energy sounds good in any language. The school entertained parents and community members with a pair of songs, including the classic “Here comes the sun” they sung in German. Representatives from the project’s financial supporters — SolarWorld, Portland General Electric and Energy Trust of Oregon — spoke to the power of solar energy. And the school’s principal, Blake Peters, took a wild ride in a PGE bucket truck to cut the ceremonial ribbon.

The system at German American School, complete with an interactive, touch-screen kiosk located in the front lobby, is one of the largest installations at an Oregon school and is expected to generate about 7,800 kWh of electricity per year.

Check out a video of the solar celebration here.