Measuring Sunlight: The Pyranometer

This collection from the Center for Renewable Energy Advanced Technological Education Resource Center (CREATE) is composed of teaching materials that highlight a lesson on measuring "the sun’s irradiance (radiant power received by a surface per unit of area) with an instrument used in the solar industry called a pyranometer." During the lesson, students go outside and use a pyranometer to take irradiance measurements in various orientations and situations. Class data is collected, averages are given, and students then answer the questions in the Show What You Know section. The collection is composed of four documents.

The four documents include an instructor's guide and answer key, a student lesson and response guide, and two standards documents. The instructor's guide and answer key provides learning goals; information on required materials, resources, and technology; an introduction to the lesson; and the activity with answers. The student lesson and response guide provides an introduction to the lesson and an activity. The standards documents explore energy literacy principles and concepts, as well as next generation high school science standards. 

For orientation purposes 508_Measuring Sunlight The Pyranometer Student Lesson & Response Guide.pdf is included as a separate attachment and offers a sample of the type of the material included in this module.

Below is a list of the files contained within the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.

508_Measuring_Sunlight_The_Pyranometer (4 files, 1.3 MB)

• Energy Literacy Standards (508_ELStandards Measuring Sunlight The Pyranometer.pdf 66 KB)
• Instructor's Guide and Answer Key (508_Measuring Sunlight The Pyranometer Instructors Guide & Answer Key.pdf 594 KB)
• Student Lesson and Response Guide (508_Measuring Sunlight The Pyranometer Student Lesson & Response Guide.pdf 552 KB)
• Next Generation Science Standards (508_NGSStandards Measuring Sunlight The Pyranometer.pdf 92 KB)