New Perspectives in Science Education

Achieving a sustainable energy future is a tremendous challenge for society that requires broad education in its importance as well as in the underlying science. We present here a workshop that has been developed for school students on the topic of renewable energy by the Collaborative Research Center (CRC 1073) at the University of Göttingen. The goal of the workshop is to pass an appreciation of the science behind renewable energy conversion on to school students. By educating our youth in the science and technology of energy conversion, we aim to empower them to evaluate political and social discussions about renewable energies and to actively shape our future.
The workshop introduces the students to the broad concept of the “hydrogen economy”, and then to the interdisciplinary sciences needed to understand hydrogen generation and storage. These include semiconductor physics and redox chemistry, which are both important topics in German school curricula. The students first build solar cells. They isolate TiO2 nanoparticles from commercial sunscreen, measure the particle size with scanning and transmission electron microscopes and build a solar cell with them. The effect of the particle size on both the solar cell and the sunscreen is discussed. Second, they demonstrate hydrogen generation by electrolysis using commercial solar cells and by photocatalysis using zinc sulfide nanoparticles and other more efficient catalysts. Finally, the students calculate and compare the efficiency of solar cell electrolysis and photocatalysis for hydrogen generation from water. The comparison reveals the high potential of photocatalysis, but at the same time the need for further research.

Keywords: Energy, research, hydrogen, photocatalysis, solar cells;