It’s not only since the “Fridays for Future“ protest marches that our students at HRS Secondary School Ritterhude got seriously involved in mitigating climate change. A very successful project day 2019 with interesting workshops and vivid lectures set off an overwhelming commitment to climate protection in our school community. Many questions obviously remained unanswered but fortunately these “knowledge gaps” motivated our students to look into the matter more curiously. On the roof of our school building we have been using a photovoltaic system for a couple of years now. Hence resulting in our idea to make this technology the key focus of our Erasmus project. Our primary objective is to achieve a sustainably acting industrialized society. For this purpose we aim to considerably reduce carbon dioxide emissions coming from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. In our Erasmus project we offer a unique opportunity to both our school‘s and our partner schools‘ students over a period of two years. They will be researching the effects of the technological use of photovoltaic cells and hopefully will be creating new ideas for a continued development of these cells. All this will take place both in and outside the classroom. In cooperation with our school partners from Poland, Lithuania and Italy we will be examining various possibilities to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells designed to track the position of the sun. In the project we intend to devise the corresponding necessary mechanic components or parts which are supposed to align the cells according to the sunlight. By means of a programmed tracking unit activating electric motors the tracking towards the sunlight will actually be carried out. The participating students of all partner countries involved will publish a comprehensive collection of material including construction plans and test results. All this will be translated in the different required languages on the e-twinning platform. Our publications are intended to arouse the curiosity of future student generations and encourage their pioneering spirit of research. Using our ideas and results packed in an ‘experimental case’, they will be able to continue research and create new sustainable Erasmus projects on their own and with their personal commitment. These are the targets that we set ourselves as a project partner.
It’s not only since the “Fridays for Future“ protest marches that our students at HRS Secondary School Ritterhude got seriously involved in mitigating climate change. As we are currently using a photovoltaic system on the roof of our school building, we agreed that this technology provided a worthwhile and useful focus of our Erasmus project. Our primary objective is to achieve a sustainably acting industrialized society. For this purpose we aim to considerably reduce carbon dioxide emissions coming from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas in order to produce electricity. In our Erasmus project we have offered a unique opportunity to both our school‘s and our partner schools‘ students to be engaged in and do some research on the technological use and development of photovoltaic cells – which they have done both inside and outside the classroom. As a result the students from Poland, Lithuania, Italy and Germany in cooperation planned, designed and built a model system by means of which they examined various possibilities to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells designed to track the position of the sun. In the project the students used a 3-D-printer to produce the mechanic components designed for the alignment of the cells to turn towards the sunlight. The students succeeded in programming a tracking unit that activates an electric motor which finally carries out the tracking into the direction of the sunlight. The participating students of all partner countries are now able to present a comprehensive collection of material including construction plans and test results to be found in their so-called “Hyper-Expectcase”. Using it is the project’s ultimate goal. The case is meant to arouse the future student generations’ curiosity and pioneering spirit so that they will be able to continue research and create – with their personal commitment - new sustainable Erasmus projects on their own.