Power in Numbers: Discovering Solar Potential in Canada and Sharing Its Story

1. Students should have a baseline understanding of renewable and nonrenewable energy. Discuss these sources with a focus on solar energy.
2. Students will brainstorm the pros and cons of solar energy in warm and cold climates. Create two chart papers or use whiteboards, one titled “Warm Climates” and the other “Cold Climates.” Provide each student with sticky notes and ask them to generate as many ideas as possible in three minutes, each on their own sticky note. After three minutes are over, ask students to place their sticky notes on the corresponding chart paper. Next, sort and combine similar ideas, and add new ones as they come up.
3. With the goal of developing a deeper understanding of the pros and cons of solar energy, provide each student a copy or link to an article on either warm climates or cold climates (Viability of solar panels from Canada’s Solar Company, 2025)(How extreme heat affects your solar energy production, 2025). Allow students 5-10 minutes to read the article. Then, as a class, add more ideas to the brainstorm that were not included. Students can record the list on paper or digitally after the discussion is complete. Extension: students could be provided with both articles to read rather than one.

1. Before diving into the data, make a list of questions students should ask when observing data. How do you know if data is reliable or valid? What type of data is it? What are the basic characteristics? What is the structure of the data? This will encourage students to apply critical thinking skills when analyzing a website with data.
2. Using a mind map or other graphic organizer, provide students with the links to two web pages. These websites provide data that will allow students to compare Canadian provinces’ and territories’ solar energy. The goal of this activity is for students to make observations and build connections using data after creating their own experiment. Students can reflect on the data with a worksheet “Compare Canadian Solar Energy using Data” (Government of Canada, 2023) (Urban, 2023). Create a digital version if preferred.
3. Use the following chart to log in their findings.

Questions	Notes:	Suggestions to improve design
What do you notice?
What is most surprising?
What patterns do you notice?
What are the similarities between provinces?

1. Provide students with the opportunity to create a digital awareness campaign focused on sustainability and solar energy. Provide students with guiding questions to help them brainstorm. What should people know about solar energy in cold/warm climates? Why is solar energy important?
2. Encourage students to create a specific topic for their project or to take on a different perspective to challenge themselves.
3. A digital awareness campaign is a strategy to increase public understanding of a particular topic, in this case, solar energy. With the information they have already learned about solar energy in warm/cold climates, students can create a digital awareness campaign such as a video, digital poster, social media posts or telling a story with Twine.
   • Twine is an open-source tool to create and tell stories.
4. Students can share their digital creations with the class in small groups or presentations.

• Does Temperature Impact Solar Panel Electricity Production? Download
• Government of Canada, C.E.R. (2023). Canada Energy Regulator.
• Kyle Ritland. (2025). How extreme heat affects your solar energy production.
• Urban, R. (2023). Solar Energy Maps Canada 2023 (every province).
• MAG Solar Canada. (2025). Viability of solar panels from Canada’s Solar Company.
• Twine