Planning for solar-powered communities

Gold arrows pointing to the title

Earthshare funds educational story and narrative projects 

Official grant name

Educating Arizona: Solar Choices, Opportunities, and Visions of the Future

Award amount

$50000

Principal investigator

Ruth Wylie

Direct sponsor

EarthShare

Award start date

06/01/2023

Award end date

11/30/2024

The challenge

Educators are seeking ways to demonstrate how society can plan for solar-powered communities and cities. One way of increasing awareness of how a transition to solar energy can lead to economic, civic, and cultural transformations is through short science fiction stories, essays and visual art that explore the possibilities of just and equitable energy futures.  

 


The approach

Educating Arizona: Solar Choices, Opportunities and Visions of the Future is led by Ruth Wylie, associate research professor, in collaboration with Clark A. Miller, a scholar of energy and society, and Joey Eschrich, an editor of science fiction and nonfiction. It builds on the foundation of existing materials created through the Solar Tomorrows project at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination: two open-access books, The Weight of Light and Cities of Light. The project will engage four Solar Tomorrows Fellows in an eight-week residency at ASU’s Tempe campus. Each fellow will develop learning materials, group activities, curriculum and facilitation guides for a specific setting and population, including K–12 education, informal education settings, popular media outlets and adult learning environments such as libraries and lifelong learning programs.