When students have to pedal a bike to create electricity, they can see how much effort it requires to turn on a lightbulb. In contrast, students notice how effortlessly a solar panel generates electricity. Besides the hands-on experience the students receive with this experiment, they also get a better understanding about electricity and power. At the end, they even have a firm grasp on the abstract unit called a watt.

This is the lesson Melanie teaches students when she uses the “solar bike” in demonstrations about solar energy. Mrs. Nestler, science teacher at Bright since 2016, and Helge Nestler, who are both engineers by trade, recently earned a patent for their teaching tool. They first brought the bike to Bright when their daughters were students. All three – Gesa, Greetja and Beke – have graduated.

“My wife and I wanted to make it easy for students to understand the dimensions and the potential of solar power,” Helge Nestler said.

In the solar power lesson, students experience how easy it is to start a fire just by using a magnifying glass and the sun’s energy. They learn about making solar panels and how solar panels absorb the sun’s energy and convert the energy into electricity. The solar panel Mrs. Nestler uses in the lesson easily lights up a strip of lightbulbs on a sunny day while students must pedal extremely fast and hard to light the same amount of lightbulbs and keep them lit.

The Nestlers are going to help other schools spread the knowledge about this important topic. “Our vision is to see in the near future that installing solar panels on the roofs of our homes is as common as putting windows in a building,” Helge Nestler said. “One key to reach this goal is to educate children in their young years how the technology functions in order to make wise decisions in the future regarding this important topic.”

The Nestlers have been instrumental in helping the school both teach and use solar energy. Bright installed two solar panel arrays in April 2016 after months of planning led by Helge Nestler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees. The panels have the capacity to produce 30 kilowatts of energy, which is about 10 percent of what the school uses each year. In addition, students can see the production of the solar panels through a website that monitors the system and the power it produces.