FYTD: Find your new groups.

Sit in your new

seats This is your new group for the next few
weeks while we complete our STEM project.
2 min: Get to know your new members. Share
out their favorite cartoon characters.
Mumbai
Kasey
Trevor
Jason
Jennifer

Rio De
Janero
Cameron
Mason
Nathan
Thanh

Casablanca

Seattle

Justin
Miranda
Gianni

Josh
Scott
Kevin

New York
City

Tokyo

Sydney

Jamaica

Jake
Alyssa
Garland

Ryan D.
Sydney
Adam

Michael D.
Grant
Daryl
Joesph

Jose
Joey
Jordan
Ellie

Investigation into Solar

Cells
A STEM Project

Essential Question
Think Write Share
Solar panels are one of the foundations
of the green initiative, they are showing
up everywhere, How do they work?

1 minute think
2 minute write
3 minute share

Content Goals
Light comes in packets of energy
called photons
Photons of a specific wavelength
liberate electrons from their atoms
Photovoltaic cells are composed of
electron rich and electron poor
layers.
Light frees electrons to move between
layers and create a current.

Language Goals
Condensing information from
academic text and applying
information to a real world problem.
Collaborate with peers to negotiate
experimental design

Social Goals
Interact within a group to share
understanding and conduct an
inquiry into a real world problem.

Review of How Electricity

Works
Think-Write-Share (1,2,3)
Describe a DC circuit (The kind in a
flashlight).
What are the important components?
How does it work?

Electricity Review
Alternating Current and Direct
Current
Circuits
Open
Closed
Parallel
Series
Resistance

Electricity Review
On a Chemical Level
Movement of Electrons
From a region of High Concentration
to a region of Low Concentration.

Think Write Share (1,2,3)

Using what you know about the periodic
trends of ionization energy, what is
happening when electricity moves
through a wire?

Current Technology

New Technology
Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC)

Reading Scientific
Documents
Documents are often dense with
information
They use unfamiliar grammar
structures and vocabulary
They need to be broken down into
manageable parts

Close Reading
A way to approach difficult documents
Requires practice
Here is how it works
Take three passes
First Pass (Scan for organization and main
ideas)
Second Pass (general information and
concepts)
Third Pass (Look for specific details
associated with the topic or question you
are trying to answer.)

Close Reading
While Reading.
Highlight confusing words, phrases, and
concepts
Highlight things that you found
interesting.
Use of vocabulary list.
Write explanations of hard to understand
concepts in your own words.
Answer the questions on the Close Read
Graphic Organizer (GO).

Reading
Take 20 Minutes and complete the
reading and answer the questions

ASSEMBLE THE SOLAR

CELL

Bring the Creature to LIFE!

Take Notes!
Youre going to have to do this
yourselves!

Homework Watch the film and write the list of

materials and the assembly steps.

The GOOD Stuff!

You will be acting as Scientists
and following your curiosity.
We will be engaging in Inquiry and
you will be designing your own
experiment and collecting your own
data
Look at the Inquiry GO
There are 4 Parts to the Organizer

Inquiry Graphic Organizer

Work within your groups to design your
own experiment
Part 1- What do you know?
Write 5 things that you know about
DSSCs

Part 2- Research Questions

From what you know, come up with 3-5
questions that youd like to find answers
to.

Inquiry Graphic Organizer

Part 3- One Testable Hypothesis or big
question to answer
Question or If-Then Statement

STOP
Your Question or Hypothesis must receive
APPROVAL!!!

Part 4- Experimental Design

List of materials needed and steps you will
take to collect your data.
Decide what data you will be collecting

Inquiry Graphic Organizer

Part 4- Experimental Design
List of materials you will need
List of steps you will take to collect your data.

Data
Decide what data you will be collecting
Decide what decisions you will make from the
data
Decide how you will know if you are collecting is
reasonable
Make your own data table and make sure its
labeled.

After the Experiment

You will write individual lab reports
Title (Describe what youre testing)
Discussion (Why you decided to test
this)
Materials Used and Procedure
Data and Calculations

Discussion and Conclusion

Discussion
Discuss your data with respect to what
you know about how solar cells operate
Did your experiment work? If not, how
do you know? Why do you think it
didnt?

Conclusion
Answer your hypothesis or question
Conclusions based on evidence from
discussion

List of Experimental
Materials
Solar Cell Kits
Multi meters
Organic Dyes
Raspberry Juice
Other Juices?
Spinach

Ethanol
Mortar and Pistil
Denatured Alcohol

Centrifuge
Light sources

Sunlight
Florescent Lights
Incandescent light
Black light (UV)
LED Light