Mt. Hebron Students Build Solar Suitcase, Sent to Ghana and Kenya

In the spring of 2013, Mt. Hebron Social Studies teacher Casey LaRosa discovered the Solar Suitcase project while searching for relative topics to use in the classroom. Solar Suitcases, are a portable power unit designed to help health workers all inside of a handy suitcase-like box. They give health workers medical lighting and power for mobile communication, laptop computers and small medical devices.

LaRosa told Daniel Taylor, STEM Coordinator, about the suitcases and the two discussed the project at great lengths with We Care Solar, the company that started Solar Suitcases. Last November, Taylor and Language Arts teacher Eric Polhill attended a three-day workshop at Princeton University organized by We Care Solar to learn more about electricity, the solar suitcase and its assembly and curriculum implementation.

Back at Mt. Hebron a group of students on the school’s Kindness Committee assisted with fundraising and awareness of the project. In February and March of this year, a group of teachers organized to learn more about the Solar Suitcase project and then assembled a Solar Suitcase to be used as a model for students.

“They [the students] learned a bit about circuits and electricity, and then followed a manual to put the suitcase together,” said LaRosa. “The beauty of the suitcases is that they are relatively simple to build. Everything must be done in a specific order, and connected properly, which means students have to be able to read the manual, comprehend, and apply the information. That is all part of what the Common Core hopes to address.”

All of the students got involved in the process, even if they were not helping to build the suitcase. Students also created images and pop up cards for children of the school where the suitcase would end up, in Ghana. Others acted as reporters and documented the process through written, photographic and video reports. Some students used laptops to research several related topics such as solar energy in general, and places that are off the electrical grid where a suitcase might be beneficial.

The coordinated school-wide effort, along with the help of the Montclair BOE, Academic Office, Mt. Hebron PTA, MFEE, Michael Starr (Shalini’s companion) and Mt. Hebron math teacher Shalini Taneja, Mt. Hebron was able to raise more than $10,000 to purchase the solar suitcase kits to be assembled by the students.

A culmination of their work can be seen here in a video produced by Mt. Hebron grad Aesha Johnson.

“Students learned, practiced skills, participated in a philanthropic venture,” said LaRosa, “and people who have very little or no access to electricity, gained a power source.

Mt. Hebron is now working on preparations to donate a solar suitcase to the Montclair-based non-profit organization Upright Africa founded in 2012 by John Woods after multiple visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Last year Mt. Hebron donated two Solar Suitcases; one to a school in Ghana which LaRosa annually supports on behalf of the House 2 students and another to the Maasai warriors of Kenya.

While waiting to prepare the solar suitcase, Mt. Hebron wanted to assist in another need for the people of Africa. Recently, the school coordinated the donation of more than 1400 obsolete science textbooks and teacher resources not only from Mt. Hebron, but also from Glenfield Middle School, to needy schools in the DRC with the help from Upright Africa.

To read more about Mt. Hebron’s STEM programs and projects, click here.

Information and photos courtesy of the Montclair Public School District, another version of this article can be seen here.