In Cypress Fairbanks, the solar school project is at the Science Resource Center(SRC).  The Cypress Fairbanks ISD has a number of schools within its district including the Arnold Middle School which is directly across the street from the Science Resource Center (SRC).  The National Energy Education Development Project is administering the educational  part of the TXU Energy Solar Academy Project and has conducted one teacher training workshop at the SRC already.

TXU Energy donated the pole mounted solar electricity system and you can see the data at the following web site:

http://www.txunews.com/solaracademy/solarmap.html

The mission of the SRC shows how it serves as the science support center for the district.

Mission: The mission of the Science Resource Center is to support and enrich the science program in
Cypress-Fairbanks I.S.D. so that our graduates will achieve the goal of scientific literacy.

With a staff of seven, the SRC provides science teaching aids for every school in the Cy-Fair district.  In the spring, they stage field trips for kindergarten, first and second grades.  Volunteers are trained there to teach demos appropriate to different grade levels, often using live animals which are housed at the SRC.  “Big Events” are provided for each grade level in elementary school.  First grade receives fertilized chicken eggs to incubate and watch hatch.  Second gets painted lady butterfly caterpillars to raise and watch metamorphose into butterflies.  Third and Fifth grades go to the district nature trails behind Millsap elementary school and each school gets the use of an inflatable planetarium for one week during the year to teach fourth grade students about the universe.   To supplement the solar panel, each elementary school in the district is provided with a “NEED kit,” assembled by the SRC staff.  It contains materials for six different stations that teach about different types and sources of energy.

The SRC is located just to the East of Highway 290.  It is just a few minutes from Houston up Highway 290 and it is located in what I would call “Northwest Houston.”

Katy, Texas is a city just west of the City of Houston.  You travel west on the I-10 freeway and between 10 and 15 miles you come to the Katy exits.  The Katy Independent School District has over 50,000 students and one of its elementary schools is Morton Ranch Elementary.  Morton Ranch Elementary opened in 2008 and is a member of the TXU Energy Solar Academy and is one of a number of Texas Solar Schools.  There is a 1 kW pole mounted system behind the school (facing south of course) near the playground.  There is a live data collection system and you can see the data by clicking the icon just west of Houston at the TXU Energy Solar Academy web site:

http://www.txunews.com/solaracademy/solarmap.html