Scientific progress and science teaching:
Basic knowledge, interdisciplinary and ethical issues

Sun Chasers - Chasseurs de soleil

Switzerland

The Sun Chasers project is about installing didactic Energy building sites in care of Swiss schools classrooms. It has been built around the central idea of allying energy renewable production economies in an only pedagogical concept. This project tries to establish a link between a practical dimension of building photovoltaic installations, and getting concerned about the preservation of nature, hence an important ethical dimension. The project is interesting from different points of view: the present validity of the matters it addresses, the students it is aimed at and the new in-site approach it has initiated.

In this project, youngsters between 14 and 16 years of age are initiated by the action game "great nature" to one of the most attractive scientific concepts and also to one of the hardest social problems of our times: Energy. This one-week initiation integrates, on the one hand, the building of a professional quality solar thermal installation, and on the other hand, the discovery of energy world stakes and the proposals of concrete economic measures. The manifestations are organized throughout the different Swiss cantons according to a previously fixed and widely informed schedule (touring camp modality). The camp takes place in a public open space, generally downtown, with registered students. The last day, it receives the city schools students, their parents and passers-by. They are thus sensitized to the Energy matter and can admire what the youngsters have done.

The interest of having these camps is a multiple one. Young people learn to use professional tools, to act directly upon energetic consumption by going back up the energy degradation chains, practicing and spreading up a proven and competitive technique of renewable energy production. Besides, the camp sensitizes people on the understanding of the social and environmental impacts of energy degradation, and the need for a rational use of that same energy.

Cédric JEANNERET
Arpège Communication
36, Ave. Cardinal-Mermillod
CH - 1227 Carouge
Tel.: +41 22 827 38 00
Fax: +41 22 827 38 07
E-mail: cedric.jeanneret@arpege.ch

Pascal CRETTON
Solar Support 22 Place du Tunnel
CH - 1005 Lausanne
Tel/Fax: +41 21 311 37 42
E-mail: pcretton@vtx.ch

Institutional Partners
Swiss High Schools Associations
Financial Partners
Federal Bureau of Energy at Bern
Federal and Canton Bureau of Energy
Federal Bureau of Energy, Switzerland

The project started in 1999.