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McKinney: Minshew Elementary fitted with new solar panel
Photos by Katie Knickerbocker/McKinney Courier-Gazette
Tom Crowe presents Partners in Education plaque to Colette Vallot as Robin McCoy, Ken Paxton, and teachers look on.
By Katie Knickerbocker, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Solar Academy in session last week for one group of MISD teachers
It’s not uncommon to go online to check email, bank statements, or even the weather forecast, but what about checking your renewable energy consumption?
McKinney residents and Minshew Elementary families in particular can now go online to view how much energy is being generated daily by the school’s new photovoltaic [PV] solar electricity system.
“TXU is actually supporting 40 school districts,” School Board Vice President Lynn Sperry said. “What an honor and what an opportunity and what a privilege to be part of the few schools in a way that got selected to participate.”
As well as providing the solar panel, TXU and the National Energy Education Development Project held a one-day Solar Academy Workshop to train teachers on the curriculum and teaching tools provided as part of the program.
On Friday, June 12, teachers sat through a training session focused on teaching about solar energy in the classroom and learned how to use the TXU Solar Academy’s Web site, txu.com/solaracademy. Also, teachers were given a Science of Energy Kit including curriculum and hands-on activities for the classroom.
“The city of McKinney is focused on green initiatives,” District Superintendent Tom Crowe said. “The schools are participating in that through several ways. … This is just another method of being able to make McKinney a greener community.”
At a ribbon cutting ceremony for the solar panel on Friday, Nancy Cowlishaw, coordinator of the district’s Partners in Education program presented TXU with a plaque thanking them for their contributions.
Also at the ceremony Robin McCoy, representative of State Senator Craig Estes, and State Representative Ken Paxton spoke expressing appreciation for the teachers’ participation in the workshop and for TXU.
TXU designed the Solar Academy program to encourage students’ curiosity and promote higher thinking and scientific inquiry into conservation, energy transformation, and interactions of energy and matter. The program encourages hands-on experiments with solar ovens, solar balloons, radiometers, and mini solar photovoltaic kits.
“I know our kids are going to benefit from this,” Crowe said. “I think this is going to be great for them to learn about renewable sources of energy.”
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