The CoServ Solar Station is a community solar farm located in Krugerville. It was launched in 2015 to offer CoServ electric members a renewable energy option that didn’t involve long-term contracts or the purchase and installation of solar panels on their rooftops.
Starting in September, the CoServ Solar Station will offer something other than electricity: lessons about energy in an on-site classroom.
This half-day field trip and classroom experience is ideal for fifth-through-eighth-grade students who want a dynamic, hands-on experience, and it includes a tour of the 16-acre site with CoServ energy education experts.
A ready-made curriculum will be provided to teachers to incorporate solar lessons and activities at school before and after the visit. Arcing demonstrations and natural gas safety activities can be scheduled, as well as a walk-through of the CoServ energy education trailer. (The trailer is a new mobile classroom that educates visitors about energy efficiency measures. And, to keep with the solar theme, it’s powered by batteries charged by solar panels mounted on the roof!)
The solar station class, energy education trailer, arcing demonstrations and gas safety activities are just some of the academic initiatives that CoServ offers its members and customers.
Other programs include CoServ scholarships; the youth leadership tour of Austin and Washington, DC; financial support for education foundations that support 18 North Texas school districts; an Adopt-a-School program that supplies elementaries with books, supplies, snacks and teacher appreciations; and a giant CoServ POWERrace® board game that helps elementary and middle-school students learn about energy.
As a longtime educator in the Denton school district, I learned long ago that summer was the busiest time for teachers to plan for the upcoming school year. If you need more details about a solar classroom experience and tour for this upcoming school year–or any other academic initiative I’ve mentioned here–it’s not too late: Please visit CoServ.com and click on the COMMUNITY tab or email [email protected].
I look forward to hearing from educators and parents who are reading this and letting you know how CoServ can help your students, teachers and schools.
——————–
Whitney Gohlke is Academic Initiatives Senior Specialist at CoServ. If you have any questions about what CoServ can do for your school, please email [email protected].
