Solar Education in Philly
Semester: Spring 2025
Faculty Advisor: Don Barber
Field Site: Philadelphia Solar Energy Association (PSEA)
Field Supervisor: Liz Robinson
Praxis Poster:
PIS_Natasha Ring- PIS Final Poster(24 x 36 in)
Further Context:
My advisor first mentioned doing a Praxis Independent Study to me as a sophomore, when I declared my major in Environmental Studies. As an Environmental Studies and Education double major planning to pursue a career in Environmental Education, it seemed like a great way for me to explore local organizations working in environmental education and to learn from one. This led to me, almost a year later, reaching out to Tiffany Stahl about doing one. She connected me with Liz Robinson and Philadelphia Solar Energy Association (PSEA), where I have done my Praxis Independent Study.
The thing that stood out to me about PSEA was the fact that they worked with schools. I grew up in a school district where learning about climate change, sustainability, and the environment was woven into our curriculum from the very beginning. We took field trips to the local nature center, explored the river across from my high school in labs, and talked about the difficulties with installing solar panels in my town. Placements at local schools in Philadelphia and Norristown through various classes in college showed me that my experiences were the exception, rather than the rule, and made me really interested in making environmental education a part of the public-school curriculum.
This couldn’t have come at a better time, as Pennsylvania’s new science standards, called STEELS standards, go into effect this July and PSEA was involved in creating these solar education kits to supplement the new curriculum. These solar education kits will be free kits for middle school classrooms using repurposed solar panels donated by a farmer. They will come with a handful of lesson plans, aligning with the new STEELS standards, and working on these kits has been my main responsibility this semester.
This project involves faculty and students from the Drexel Engineering Department in addition to those from PSEA, and it has been great to work collaboratively with everyone. It has really opened up my eyes to all the different considerations required when designing these kits, with questions ranging from how the lessons we’re developing will supplement the new curriculum to the best way to store the solar panels in a classroom. It has also taught me so much about how to actually write a lesson plan, and how to differentiate a good lesson plan from a bad one. Overall, this semester at PSEA has been invaluable for me and I am so appreciative of everyone I’ve gotten to work with this semester.