Solar Rover

After our overview of energy, we started discussing types of energy, and during one of our mostly-off weeks, I snatched up a kit, and the kiddoes got to make a solar rover.  During the construction, we got to talk a bit about solar energy: how we see it used day to day in people, plants, etc.  And of course this project brought up the idea of using it as an alternative fuel to power items, which is a pretty new concept for them.

They really only got to build the vehicle portion, since the solar panels were pretty much ready to go.  I connected the wires for them the first time, but when they got tugged, the kiddoes reconnected them themselves after folding down the panels to keep the sun out.

Ta da!  Complete!

Whoops-- not quite complete.  The kiddoes needed to add their own bits of flare to it (of course). So it ended up being so much more than a blank case.

They were so surprised to see the rover virtually speed off across the deck without any batteries or additional inputs.  Even though we made this on a sorta cloudy day, it still worked very very well.  Plus, the clouds helped the kiddoes see that it genuinely was the sun which was powering their vehicle, since it would slow down and speed up based on the amount of incoming sunshine.  By the end, they figured out to adjust the panels to pick up the most solar energy.

--Little Miss Crazy