Warwick Education Foundation (WEF) recently awarded Warwick High School science teacher Sarah Martens a grant for $954 to purchase six solar panel trackers for her honors astronomy class.

"The trackers let my students take what they learn in honors astronomy and apply it to a real-world situation," Martens explained. "They figure out the altitude and azimuth of our sun for our latitude and time of year, then determine the best placement of a solar panel to get the maximum voltage."

Each device is a bench-scale model of a double-axis solar panel tracker. Built-in sensors detect the direction of the light source and send an electronic signal to the twin motors, which instantly tilt the photovoltaic cell up or down and left or right. As the sun moves across the sky, the tracker adjusts the panel to follow it. A voltage reader displays how much electricity is being produced.

When the Warwick astronomers take their trackers outside, Martens said, they can "determine the best placement of a solar panel that would be in a fixed position to get the most radiation absorption and the maximum voltage." Students also compare solar voltage on clear days versus cloudy days and during different months of the year.

"It's really cool to be able to track the sun, take all this scientific data, and apply it to real-world situations," said Nolan Rucci, a Warwick senior. Nolan's future plans include attending the University of Wisconsin.

Each year, the Warwick Education Foundation gives about $250,000 above and beyond the school district's budget to enrich learning opportunities for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The funding supports innovative teaching grants, as well as many other tools and resources. More information about the foundation is available at http://www.WarwickEF.org.