Armstrong High School Applies for Solar Array Grant
A senior at Plymouth’s Armstrong High School is hoping to make the district more environmentally-friendly by bringing solar panels to campus.
Amaya Young is co-president of Armstrong’s Environmental Club.
She, along with a science teacher and media center specialist, applied to a Minnesota Department of Commerce “Solar for Schools” grant.
The grant could help pay for a solar array at the high school.
“I’d love to see the district just be more sustainable in its energy use and use cleaner sources of energy and be able to share the knowledge of that benefit,” Young said. “It’s kind of been a long-term project that we’ve been working on in Environmental Club for a few years, and it’s just something I’m really passionate about. And I had a chance to make it happen, so I just really wanted to get that done before I graduate.”
Amaya Young is co-president of Armstrong’s Environmental Club. She, along with a science teacher and library media specialist, applied for a grant to bring a solar array to Armstrong High School.
Hands-On Learning
Armstrong library media specialist Valerie Jeffery said the solar panels could help provide students with new hands-on learning opportunities.
“Instead of just learning about solar panels and alternative energies, they can go out and see it in the works,” Jeffery said. “We’ll have the data, the numbers to run for district savings. We have some ideas that we might want to turn it into potentially an outdoor classroom too.”
The student-driven aspect of the project is unique.
“It gives students a voice on really anything that they want to see,” Jeffery said. “The culture of this Armstrong school is that it’s very much student voiced — that’s very valued … to have student voice start that process is exactly what we want.”
The Robbinsdale School Board and other high-ranking district officials will decide in June if they want to move ahead with the solar array project.
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Armstrong High School
