Solar Cell Photon Toss Exhibit

Overview

The Solar Cell Photon Toss is a desktop interactive exhibit that is good for younger audiences or families. The poster graphic is mounted on a rigid board with a hole at the center at the junction layer. Behind the hole is a hinged panel and a microswitch which connects to strips of LED lights which flash when the circuit is completed. There are three types colors of bean bags, red is filled with light fiberfill, green is filled with half fiber and half beans, the blue bag is filled with beans. The switch is adjusted so that it requires the force of the heavy blue bag in order to actuate.

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Science topics to discuss

Conversation Starters Can you make electricity with sunlight? These bean bags represent sunlight of different colors. Throw them at the solar cell and see what happens.

Here are some of the topics that can discussed with kids and parents as they toss the bean bags.

• Sun light is made of many colors
• Blue light has more energy than red light
• Much of the solar radiation is invisible Infrared which can pass through clouds
• We need to develop solar cells that generate electricity using the whole spectrum
• Solar cells can be made of layers of semiconducting plastics
• A photon must absorbed near the junction between the acceptor and donor layers for a current to be generated
• After a photon is absorbed an electron moves one direction and a hole moves the other direction forming a complete circuit.