KARL TORSTEIN HETLAND Dalen vidaregåande skule, 3880 Dalen, Norway phone:47-35077271 fax: 47-35077206
email: karlth@dalen.vgs.no

EINAR OTERHOLM Ressurssenteret i miljølære, 6630 Tingvoll, Norway phone: 47-71531235 fax: 47-71530142
email: einar.oterholm@eunet.no

Abstrac

This project is one of many environmental projects initiated by KUF (the Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs). This project show a way of introducing solar energy as a subject in the physics curriculum in the upper secondary school. Our main goal has been to measure the global solar radiation continuously and to use the results as a starting point for a discussion about the potential of solar energy. In this article we present the measuring equipment, some results and some student projects.

The project started in 1991. In the school year of 1996/97 55 schools participate. In 1998 we are about 35 active schools. During the year of 1997 Finland introduced SOLIS in ten Finnish schools as part of their new school physics project named ^SC_HOOL PHYSICS. In addition Latvia started in the fall 97. In Denmark SOLIS initiated a daughter project called FotoSOL.

In the school year of 96/97 SOLIS also initiated a national solar energy competition for schools called Our Wonderful Sun and in 1998 Trøndersol 98´.

As a result of the SOLIS project a new project on UV-measurements has evolved. In this project we measure the intensity of the solar radiation at 310nm and 330nm. From these measurements the students can calculate the total atmospheric ozone. As far as we know this is the first time such measurements are done in high schools.

1. Background

Over the last few years one has in Norway put a great deal of effort into transferring the conclusions in the Brundtland report into practical environmental education (EE). One way of doing this has been through national projects. The main idea behind the projects is that the students make measurements on environmental parameters that are of interest for scientists and the society in general. The SOLIS-project is one of these projects.

In March 1990 Astrid Sandås (the leader of environmental education in Norway) and Einar Oterholm took the initiative in arranging a meeting in Oslo. The question was if one could start an environmental project on energy issues, and especially in solar energy. The result of the meeting was that a preliminary project group with representatives from the Upper Secondary school, the Department of Physics (University of Oslo), the Meteorological Institute and the Department of Education (KUF) was set up. During the fall of 1990 the group worked out an outline for the project. It spelled out that one way of working with solar energy in schools was to use measurement of global radiation as a starting point. The project was to be integrated in the ordinary physics course in the Upper Secondary school (18- years of age). An accurate gathering of radiation data was to make a sound basis for the project.

To ensure a high professional quality in the project, resource persons from the universities in Norway have been involved in the steering committee and the working group. In each group we have representatives from the scientific communities in Trondheim and the Department of Physics in Oslo. The project is financed by the Ministry of Education and the national solar energy program. Especially the funding from the national solar energy program gives the project a high status and is an additional inspiration both for students and teachers.

The final organization was decided in the spring of 1991, and 6 schools were carefully picked out and invited to participate in developing the project the first year. At that point we had not decided what measuring equipment to use, and we had not developed the computer program or any other educational working material. The idea was to develop the material in cooperation with the participating schools. We had our first workshop at the Solar Observatorium at Harestua just outside Oslo in October 1991. At this meeting we presented the project idea and created great enthusiasm for the project. During the autumn of 1991 we managed to put together some measuring equipment useful for the schools. The criteria was that it had to be cheap, easy to use and that it could be used to measure other parameters than solar radiation and temperature. This equipment was tested during the spring 1992 and in June we invited all the Upper Secondary schools in Norway to join the project. The interest was far beyond our expectations when 43 schools applied to join the project. We had to put a limit of 20 schools and these schools (two teachers from each) were invited to a training course at Dalen in Telemark. Already on the fifth of November we received radiation data from all over the country, and to our relief there were only small problems in implementing the equipment.

2. The measurements

2.1. The measuring equipment

In the SOLIS project we measure the global radiation and the air temperature. The main parts are a pyranometer, a temperature probe, a data logger and the computer.

The pyranometer is a photovoltaic instrument delivered by SOLDATA A/S in Denmark. The instrument gives an output signal of approx. 150 mV at a global radiation of 1000 W/m2. To calibrate and control this instrument we used a KIPP & ZONEN instrument lent from the Meteorological Institute in Oslo (placed at 6 schools).

The signal from these instruments are put into the data logger (Black Star 2308 I/O Interface) through a 12 bits ADC. This data logger has eight analog input channels with an internal memory of 512 bytes each.

2.2 The measuring routines

The data logger is programmed to read the instruments every three minutes. The computer program reads the logger at 24.00 every night (480 measuring points) and makes a file for each day. The computer presents the data graphically so that the students are able to follow the measurements from minute to minute during the day (the computer is often placed where lots of students pass by during the school day). At the end of every month the daily data is integrated and we get a result in kWh/m2/day. The mean value for the month is calculated and sent to Dalen.

On the basis of the monthly data from each school we make a histogram for the country. The places with the highest altitude are placed at the top. We can see that in May 97 there has been as much sunshine in the north as in the south of Norway. The northern schools at the top.

Yearly results

When collecting the data we get an overview of the total incoming solar energy throughout the country. We have now data from 1993 to 1996. Figure2. show the results from a school in the south of Norway and from a school above the polar circle. It also shows that when the dark part of the year is over in the north, they get almost the same amount of solar energy as in the south. In general one can exploit the solar energy very well in the north, because available solar energy corresponds well with the heating demands during the summer months (the high altitude paradox).

Figure 2. Global radiation 1993-96 from a southern school (Møglestu ) and a northern school (Breivika in Tromsø)

3. Student activities

3.1. Organization

This project is integrated into the physics curriculum at the second year in the Upper Secondary school (2 FY). The course covers 5 hours a week and the curriculum includes a project or a special topic expected to have a workload of 20 hours. This project/topic is freely chosen by the schools. The different schools organize the project in different ways. Some let all the students have SOLIS as their project and others let only a part of the class work with SOLIS (chosen by interest!). Regardless of this, it is the students that monitor the equipment and make the monthly report. As part of the SOLIS-project a solar energy resource book is developed (SOLBOKA), which the students have as a part of their physics curriculum. In the resource book they may find general chapters on solar energy, project ideas, explanation of the equipment and references to literature.

3.2. Projects

A main idea in SOLIS is that the students will do a solar energy project in addition to the measurements. This can be a theoretical project or a practical project like building a small scale solar collector or develop photovoltaic applications. Figure 3. show some of the projects done during the school year 96/97.

1. 
   
   Figure 3. Different student projects:
   Solar tower (Levanger)

Solar driven kayak and a solar driven water fountain (Dalen )
Solar shower (Dalen)
Solar driven heat engine (Gauldal)

Most of the projects were carried out during the month of May. The schools are encouraged to keep a high public profile. Some of the schools have published informative articles on solar energy in their local newspaper. This we hope will increase the understanding in the general public about how solar energy may be exploited in the future. The experience with the press so far is that solar energy sells!

3.3. Abstracts of student projects

We encourage all the students to send an abstract of their project to the coordinator. The abstracts are then distributed to the participating schools. At the moment we have over fifty abstracts. These abstracts can be used of future students to get ideas for new projects.

4. International collaboration in SOLIS

Since we first presented this project at the world solar energy conference in Budapest1993, there has been a great interest in the project. From the start we cooperated with Frank Bason from Denmark. In 1993 he introduced a similar project in his country with focus on photovoltaics (FotoSol). The spring 1997 SOLIS started at ten Finnish schools as a part of The Finnish Physical Society's focus on physics education. They started a program called ^SC_HOOL PHYSICS.

In september 1997 we started a Norway-Latvia project. Nine schools from each country met to discuss future cooperation. The starting point is SOLIS, but we want to see the project develop into a broad school to school collaboration. There has already been a lot of student exchange and the project will at least go on for two more years. For all schools the measurements in SOLIS will be the common marketplace. We plan to use World Wide Web as a communication tool . Then the students can exchange experience and ideas for new projects.

5. UV/OZONE-program

At the Institute of Physics at the University of Oslo there is a research group in biophysics that work with the effects of UV-radiation related to skin cancer. In this research they need to measure the UV-doses which the Norwegian people are exposed to through a year. One crucial parameter is of cause the thickness of the ozone layer, but even more is the amount of clouds during a day. The clouds absorbs almost all the UV-radiation (you don't get a tan on cloudy days). In their models they have measurements of the ozone layer in Oslo and Tromsø (north of the polar circle), but not so good cloud measurements.

Figure 4. The Dobson instrument

They decided to use the experiences from our solar energy program. As the students measure the solar radiation, it also means that they measure how much solar radiation is absorbed by the clouds. The scientist believe that they will get an good estimate for the amount of clouds to put into their models.

As a result of the collaboration with Frank Bason from Denmark he designed an fairly inexpensive instrument that measures the thickness of the ozone layer. That instrument measures the radiation at 310 nm and 330 nm. From these two measurements you can calculate the thickness of the total atmospheric ozone. Figure 5. Use of the UV-instrument

This fall 21 schools in Norway will measure the thickness of the ozone-layer. At the moment we care a lot about the quality of the filters and calibration of the instruments. We hope that this school year will show that the measurements are of scientific quality. Nevertheless the project will give the students an "hands on" experience with a scientific project.

6. Discussion of lessons learnt in Norway

The way SOLIS is organized has, in our opinion, values on different levels in the educational system. The students can put into practice basic knowledge in physics on a topic that is up-to-date and exciting. Through an education in solar energy the student learn about radiation physics, thermodynamics, atomic physics, material science etc. all of which is covered in the ordinary curriculum in a more theoretical way. By using modern measuring techniques one can measure in a far more realistic way than in ordinary short lab sessions. In addition it is inspiring, both for the teachers and the students, to know that the results are of interest outside the school community.

The contact between teachers from all over the country is highly motivating. The teachers meet once a year to exchange experiences and by that they get new inspiration which is transferred into their daily work.. We will also emphasize the cooperation with solar energy scientists, which give the project a sound scientific basis. We feel that the scientists pay a great respect to what the schools can do of scientific work. In almost all the environmental projects in Norway we have involved research institutions to help us set up projects that can give results of interest to the society.