ENERGY MODELS

Round 1

How to build an easy solar charger. By: Joslyn Muñiz

This is my third year with the Lexus Eco Team at Saint Joseph Academy. The first two years the team worked on the land and water challenge which, for me, was a lot easier. This year the team wanted a bigger challenge so we decided to go for the air and climate challenge. After deciding to go with renewable energy I immediately started to do research on renewable energy and how we would be able to make them ourselves at a cheaper cost. After research, I drew out the plans and the team and I started to work on them. The two [renewable energy] that we chose to do were solar and hydroelectric energy. I ended up building the solar charger and it was very easy to do! Watch the video [to the left] and find out how to build one yourself!

Hydroelectric generator

By: Jadalise Pacheco

My name is Jadalise Pacheco and this is my second year on the Lexus Eco Team at Saint Joseph Academy. This year our team name became The Enerjaggers because we took on the air and climate category while focusing on how renewable energy would help in reducing environmental detriments inflicted on the earth by humans. Joslyn did some research and found a model to build a hydroelectric stator motor and a solar charger. I volunteered to build the hydroelectric model. I slightly modified the model my peer found online and decided to make a hydroelectric water wheel stator motor instead. I used a program called Creo Parametric to design a water wheel from scratch, as well as the axle it would spin on, and then I printed both of these things on one of the 3D printers we have at school. Once the wheel and axle were printed I then started to work on making the stator motor. To do this I needed to acquirer two discs to glue magnets and copper coils onto, so I made these from scratch also by cutting them out of wood using a laser cutter. I then put the motor on the axle along with the water wheel and balanced the model through the holes in a small milk crate. I then suspended the milk crate above a storage container using flat metal columns. I filled the storage container about halfway with water, got a water pump and hose, then fed the hose through an opening between the metal columns and the side of the container. Then I tied string to the sides of the container so that the water coming out of the hose would point downward and fall onto the water wheel making the wheel and the stator motor spin. Since the magnets I glued onto one of the wooden discs were constantly spinning around the coils, it created an electric current that I showed by connecting the start and end of my line of wire to an ammeter.