Make a night-light circuit

Design and make a solar powered night-light circuit

In this engaging and practical STEM activity, designed for secondary school students, learners will investigate the photovoltaic effect by designing and making a solar power night-light circuit.

The ‘Photovoltaic cells’ scheme of work involves investigating how photovoltaic cells are used and then using this technology to make a series of electronic circuits of increasing complexity. This could form the basis of a design and make activity in Design and Technology, with cross-curricular links with Science.

This could be used as a short design and make project in Electronics or Product Design within Design and Technology. It could be extended into a longer project using the ‘Design Guide (handout)’ to provide a structure for the sequence of tasks to be carried out.

Students should be divided into pairs or small teams. Their design brief is to design and manufacture a prototype solar powered night-light.

The prototype should be powered by solar energy, produce no waste by-product with normal use, provide an appropriate illumination for a task (to be identified), illuminate automatically when the light level drops (below an identified level) and it should be manufactured from reused materials, where possible.

Tools/resources required

Access to appropriate CAD software for circuit modelling and development
Modular electronics kits or prototype boards (breadboards), as appropriate
Transistor sensor circuit help (handout)
Design Guide (handout)
A range of components to manufacture the circuits

Suggested learning outcomes

By the end of this activity students will have an understanding of how photovoltaic cells work, how they can be used and the impact of using photovoltaic cells in aesthetic, economic, and environmental issues.

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

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