How Do Solar Panels Produce Power?

This lesson is intended to be the second lesson within a series. After the first lesson, exploring the transfer of power within a system, Students utilize this lesson, lesson 2, to explain how and what that transfer of energy is. They will learn how solar panels work looking at how photons from the sunlight collide with electrons off of certain atoms within the panels, knocking the electrons from their valence shells, creating an electrical current and flow of electrons based on charges within the panels created with atoms. Using this concept, students then explore the two different types of circuits, hooking multiple solar panels up in both series and parallel to observe and calculate the differences of each to determine what amps and volts are and ultimately be able to calculate the power of their systems. Students should be able to observe that series circuits produce more force and therefore we can see the observable difference between the two circuits.