Affordable solar panel designed by students
Theo, Harry and Timofei in Italy created an efficient and affordable solar panel
The students designed the panel to make reusable energy more appealing. Using the BBC micro:bit’s light sensors and servos, their solar panel moves to always face the sun, improving productivity and efficiency. The do your :bit judges felt this was a smart, scalable solution.
Theo, Harry and Timofei won the working micro:bit category for 8 to 14-year-olds in Europe. They aimed to solve a problem related to Global Goal 13, Climate Action.
Theo, Harry and Timofei explain how the solar panel works
The do your :bit challenge is an annual competition which sets young people the challenge to innovate and design solutions relevant to the impacts of the Global Goals that are meaningful to them.
We see these solar panels everywhere now. Normally they are fixed in one place. So they don’t always face the sun. We wanted a way to make them track the sun, to follow it in the sky, just as some plants do.
Theo, Harry and Timofei
Children and young people innovating with technology
The do your :bit challenge adds social purpose to digital learning and allows students to apply their digital skills to real world solutions. All projects and lesson resources are available for free and entries can be submitted into two age-range categories, 8 to 14-year-olds and 15 to 18-year-olds. 8 to 14-year-olds can submit either a paper prototype or working micro:bit solution.
Read about all of this year’s winning entries.
The next do your :bit challenge opens in early 2022, you can find out more about the challenge and access Global Goals project resources and lessons here.
