Practical Energy Network is an MIT-based organization that grew out of some of our founders' experiences teaching at secondary schools in Ghana. We found that though students had the interest and creativity to excel in science and engineering, they were hindered by lack of access to a practically-based curriculum. Science was taught by rote learning, and the resources did not exist to perform the experiments described in textbooks.

However, when given the resources and opportunity to experiment, students came with incredibly innovative ideas - especially when they felt that the projects were useful or relevant to their lives (e.g. a charger for their cellphone or a flashlight they could use to get home at night).

We think that any student can be empowered by designing her own solution to a local challenge, and by building something that directly impacts her life and community.We also know there is a huge amount of knowledge and experience that could be shared between local teachers, students, scientists and engineers to create lessons, projects and curricula that encourage hands-on, creative science education.

PEN's goal is to create an open-source online curriculum that can be freely downloaded by educators all over the world. The curriculum's focus is on building off-grid energy projects, because they are universally relevant and in many places extremely useful, but uses these to teach basic science concepts and design skills that can be applied to any topic.

Our aim is to create lessons that can be easily modified by teachers to suit local resources and education styles, and we want to make it as easy as possible for teachers to get involved in shaping the curriculum. Our online hub (www.practicalenergynetwork.com - currently in its very early stages) is a place where teachers can download and modify lessons, share tips on teaching or where to get materials in the particular area, or engineers and technicians can share their specialist knowledge on an area of off-grid energy.

We also hope to create a linked network of clubs, based in schools, FabLabs or other communities, using the PEN curriculum that can work together and share ideas. Currently we have clubs in Takoradi, Ghana and San Franciso, US.

This is a section of PEN's very first curriculum - “Solar: Photovoltaics”. The first seven lessons (the lessons in this booklet) introduce students to solar panels and basic circuits, and finish with students designing and building their own small solar lamps.

This book also contains tips for how to teach PEN lessons, and visual how-to guides for soldering onto wires and panels.

After the lessons in this section, the curriculum goes on to teach about larger-scale solar systems, and finishes with the students building a functional solar-power system for an application in their community. Let us know if you'd be interested in the next part of the curriculum too!

After this, PEN's next project is an off-grid wind power curriculum. If you have any experience in wind and want to contribute, or want to try teaching a wind-energy project, please get in touch with us also, at pen-ed@mit.edu.

This solar curriculum starter kit includes:

Equipment for lessons (solar cells, tabbing wire, soldering irons/cutting implements if requested).

Main textbook (this one!)

Two small booklet for each individual lesson. In order to give us feedback, it would be great if you could write on these individual booklets and send them back to us.