2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

SPV Lab is developing an innovation model for school-based citizen science that supports a networked approach to community-centered knowledge building. Students and teachers on each SPV Lab campus interact through sharing of data and lab reports, using an online platform to facilitate collaboration at a distance. Students not only learn, but also contribute to scientific knowledge of a new area of engineering research, i.e., agrivoltaics, and to their communities, providing social value through clean energy and food production. Creation of an SPV Lab citizen science network that supports and sustains student and community learning in the area of sustainable food and energy.
10 teachers were trained in 2022 and 10 more teachers were trained in 2023. The reach of these two cohorts is vast as they impact more than 30 students per year each. Conservatively this translated into nearly 1000 K-12 students gaining knowledge in the area of agriPV.

The inclusion of the youth population in sustainability science and initiatives is necessary with increasing climate concerns and the push for cleaner energy. Introducing the younger populations to collaborative learning experiences about sustainable energy production is the goal of the Sonoran Photovoltaic Lab (SPV Lab). SPV Lab is a network of students, teachers, scientists, engineers, and community partners encouraging equitable, lasting, sustainable energy transitions. This group is working to increase photovoltaic systems and educate the next generation of energy researchers, knowledgeable citizens, and students to ensure that underserved students in Arizona have equitable opportunities to participate in experiential learning programs to gain a newfound understanding of sustainable systems and their impact on the environment.

Members of the SPV Lab work collaboratively to achieve active engineering citizen science for K-12 students in agrivoltaics engineering research. Agrivoltaics is a mixed energy source where solar panels are raised above agricultural crops or livestock. This creates a symbiotic relationship between the photovoltaic panels and the plants or animals that are located underneath. A cooling microbiome is generated beneath the solar panels that reduces the temperature in the area, thereby providing a more hospitable home for plants while increasing panel efficiency while collecting useful energy.
Due to the complexity of agriPV systems, students benefit most from working side-by-side with other students, teachers, and experts to reach innovative solutions. This project represents the importance of intergenerational collaboration as the main contributors to this project included a college professor, a college student, and a high school student, all of whom contributed equally to the success of this project.
Students participate in the construction of the garden beds, mapping activities, data collection, and more. Through the introduction and implementation of these activities, the students have become more invested in the success of their agrivoltaics system and are eager to support the project. The mapping activity has led to a newly cultivated understanding of These activities promoting the significance of engineering sustainable energy solutions, as well as local food systems and healthy community relationships.

In a pre-college resource exchange session, SPV Lab teachers and engineering education researchers, and at least one student representative, will co-present to represent our SPV Lab network. The team will share knowledge, resources, practices, and protocols that support SPV Lab students to (a) conduct community ethnography to inform crop choices, (b) collect data in the garden using simple digital tools and time series monitoring systems, (c) analyze and interpret data from their own gardens, and (d) share lab reports and analyze data across multiple campuses. Attendees will learn how to design and build agriPV garden spaces, build a network of collaborators, and conduct citizen science in their own regions.