[Mb-hair] The spirit of Hair lives on

[Little Birdie]

Here's an interesting newspaper article about a project my daughter's class 
is doing on solar energy. They are building soar panels to donate to the 
Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. It makes my heart glad to see these 
values taught to kids in school. I was lucky enough to assist them with this 
project, and as I looked around the classroom, watching the intensity of 
their commitment - both to renewable energy sources and to the feeding of 
the hungry -  I was moved to see that the spirit of Hair lives on in our 
children.

Love,
Nina

The Hair Archives
http://www.michaelbutler.com/hair/holding/Hair.html

Greenfield MA Recorder
Thursday, December 16, 2004

Charged up over school's solar panel project
By ADAM ORTH
Recorder Staff

GREENFIELD - Grasping a soldering iron, 12-year-old Ivy Santos of Warwick 
bent over the small photovoltaic cells she was connecting together.
"You're supposed to spread it like peanut butter," she said, while doing 
exactly that to a small pool of molten solder.
Around her, the chatter of children and adults filled the air. So did the 
acid smells of melting plastic and hot metal. The seventh- and 
eighth-graders at Greenfield Center School had transformed their classroom 
into a workshop.
"Just get under, come on," muttered 13-year-old Lydia Kinney of Greenfield. 
She was trying to secure an uncooperative ribbon of metal under a screw.
Picking at a roll of masking tape, Zoe Elkin, 12, of Amherst wrinkled her 
nose in distaste. "This is the hardest tape," she complained, while pulling 
off yet another jagged-edged strip.
Gathered around two large, wooden tables, the children were either working 
on individual solar-powered battery chargers or helping to assemble parts 
for three large solar panels.
The main ingredients for both projects were small photovoltaic cells that 
generate electricity when exposed to the sun. The simplest of these power 
watches or calculators.
Occasionally, students went outside into the sun to test their creations. As 
Santos watched, Terra Hondrogen, 13, of Pelham hooked up a meter to a nearly 
finished solar battery charger.
"Whoa," said Santos, as the meter's needle jumped into life. "It works," 
announced Hondrogen.
After expressing disappointment that her soldering wasn't more attractive, 
Santos explained that the dark blue cells are covered in a coating that 
absorbs most visible light.
"Blue, like, is the only light where the wavelength is short enough to 
reflect off of it," she said, holding the battery charger and pointing at 
the surface of the cells. "I think it's actually silver. It's aluminum."
Inside, teachers Dinah Mack and Andy Hauty moved about the room, answering a 
steady stream of questions and lending a hand when needed. It was Mack, for 
example, who helped Kinney secure that metal ribbon.
However, the conductor who consistently snatched steady progress from the 
jaws of chaos was white-haired Richard Komp.
When Hauty started looking for someone to help his students make solar 
panels, he turned to Komp, who is president of the Maine Solar Energy 
Association and author of a textbook titled "Practical Photovoltaics."
Komp worked his way around the room, directing students and teachers alike 
before moving on to the next project.
"I have to show you this," he told Hauty, urging the teacher over to the 
glass plate that Elkin had bordered with upright strips of tape.
Hauty in turn called over to 12-year-old Annie Dayton of Hatfield. "Can you 
watch him?" he asked her. "You'll do the next one."
Komp then demonstrated how to mix the liquid latex that would coat the glass 
plate. Later, the photovoltaic cells would be pressed into it to make one of 
the three panels, each one containing 36 cells.
"You use as little as possible, it's $250 a gallon," said Komp. In passing, 
he mentioned that the liquid silicone was originally developed for the U.S. 
space program in the late 1950s and, later, it would be used for breast 
implants.
This last bit of news created predictable tittering throughout the room.
Two of the larger solar panels will be donated to light up the barn at the 
Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, which combats area hunger by collecting 
and distributing food. The third will stay at the school, where it will 
continue to teach about solar energy.
Funding the school's renewable energy project is a $2,500 grant from the 
Toshiba Foundation, secured by Hauty. After finishing the panels, students 
will continue to explore the subject through a variety of self-chosen 
projects.
Some will help install the panels at the Food Bank in March. Others might 
help build a greenhouse for winter vegetables, or construct solar cars or 
solar ovens.
"A solar Lego village might happen," Mack said.
Students can also choose a hydroelectric or wind-power project. Traditional 
sources of power, which rely on non-renewable sources, like oil and coal, 
won't last forever, Hauty points out.
"To get them to think about alternative energy sources, that's kind of the 
point of the whole thing," he said.
Komp was now calling for quiet, which he got as the room stilled. He was 
ready to push the cells into the liquid silicone and needed to listen 
carefully for the telltale snap of any of them breaking.
In the quiet, Dayton's soft voice could be heard clearly. "Don't you want it 
the other way?" she asked.
Komp snatched the cells in his hand away from the sticky silicone. "Thank 
you, Annie, for catching that," he said.
Soon it would be lunchtime. The children started cleaning up - unplugging 
soldering irons, gathering up materials and battery chargers.
Meanwhile, Komp had encountered a problem. It turns out someone had soldered 
a string of cells together backward. He and Dayton retreated to a table for 
some repair work.
"This one like this, this one like this," said Komp, arranging the cells. 
"Now you're set, you can finish it."
Dutifully, while other students went to lunch, Dayton bent over the cells 
and started to neatly solder them together.
"It's just fun to get energy from other places, to just use the resources 
that are natural," she said.
Then, getting up, she carried the assembled cells outside. Behind her came 
Komp.
"I think it works," she said, after putting the cells into the sun and 
squatting to attach a meter. "Yes, yes, 3.34."
"Good," said Komp.
"It really works," said Dayton, still looking at the meter. "Excellent."
"Oh good," said Komp. "We can glue it in."
"Finally," said Dayton, as she stood up.
"After four tries," Komp agreed.
Then, together, they went back inside to finish that panel.

Greenfield Center School is an independent day school for kindergarten 
through middle school students at 71 Montague City Road in Greenfield. Its 
Web site is: www.centerschool.net.

Copyright The Greenfield Recorder 2004