Light up.

Diamond Bar, CA - March 7th, 2017: While most high school STEM-oriented class curriculums involve sitting in hour-long classes, writing pages and pages of notes, and tinkering with graduated cylinders and beakers, Diamond Bar High School’s AP (Advanced Placement) Environmental Science classes begin their second semester with a hands-on, direct action project called Your World.

​

Being led by a board of five executives featuring Grace Jean (11) as president, Megan Wu (11) as public relations manager, David Lee (11) as research manager, Isabelle Kwok (12) as arts and advertisement manager, and Sabir Rupal (12) as marketing manager, Mr. Malveaux’s 2nd period AP Environmental Science class piloted “Spotlight” at the start of March.

​

The goal of Spotlight is to lessen the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air, one lamp at a time. A solar panel will be set up to power a lamp in the Diamond Bar High School parking lot. The lamp will then run on a renewable energy source, reducing not only the price of electricity, but the carbon emissions as well.

​

Why are we doing this? As the urban population continues expand, so do the usage of our resources. Everyday we are using more and more energy, and we are not slowing down. What's going to happen to us in a few years? This is why our team has thought of the usage of solar powered lamps.

​

Why we continually use and deplete non renewable energy is a mystery when there is a cleaner renewable alternative. Solar powered lamps are powered by the sun, and will allow us to use energy without worrying about our depleting rate. Our team will show with the power of the sun, we can make a difference in the community. Solar lamps will lead to a future of clean and sustainable energy!

​

Across our school campus, there are dozens of lamp posts that use incandescent light bulbs. Incandescent light bulbs are inefficient and draw much more electricity in comparison to newer kinds of bulbs. Our project seeks to replace these highly inefficient light bulbs with energy-saving ones that will be powered by a solar panel. The solar panels will be wired to a battery to maintain reliable operation in the absence of sunlight. By powering these lights of solar energy, we will be significantly increasing their energy-efficiency and saving our school money in the long run.

 

The U.S. contains an estimated 26 million streetlights. Annually, these streetlights use electricity at a rate equivalent to 1.9 million homes, produce 2.6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions, and cost the U.S. a collective $2 billion yearly in energy alone.

​

Diamond Bar High AP Environmental Science students’ Project “Spotlight” is aimed at changing that. Through Spotlight, students hope to motivate their community to go green, and to set standards for sustainable energy use for the generations to come in what they hope is the first step in a school-wide conversion to smart, eco-friendly practices.