News

Ella Donesky
Staff Writer

In May 2015, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, the leading global energy conservation manufacturer, announced the release of their latest fantastical invention: “Powerwall.”

The home battery, available this summer, provides a sustainable alternative source of energy, which you can use to power your home electrical appliances. The battery can be used to power your Tesla Motors Electric Car. The energy for the battery is supplied through Solar Panels which can be attached to the roof of your home.

The Powerwall is offered in an assortment of colors and can be stacked on top of each other. A single battery is approximately 51 inches in height, 34 inches in width, 7 inches in depth and weighs 220 pounds.

Musk delivered a keynote speech (powered by the Tesla battery, of course) where he presented the battery and further pressed the ever-growing need to switch to clean energy sources. He opened by saying, “What I’m going to talk about tonight is a fundamental transformation of how the world works, how energy is delivered across the Earth.”

Musk then began the presentation by projecting an image of the current state of global warming, followed by a graph of the Keeling Curve, which demonstrates the trend of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere.

The impact of both images is a visual representation of what the world could look like if we continue to release harmful chemicals into our atmosphere. Musk listed the existing ways of conserving energy: Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Hydro, Wind and Solar.

An impactful and lasting solution, however, is not in any one of these methods, except in the Tesla Battery. And according to Musk, this solution exists in two parts:
first,get rid of carbon as a source of power; then, show people how easy it can be to do that.

An image of a blue square on the map of the United States, (occupying a very small portion of Texas) which represents that amount of land needed to power the whole country, communicated this message in the clearest and most powerful way.

Musk then zoomed in on the blue square, revealing an even smaller red pixel, which represents the amount of batteries needed to eliminate carbon as a source of energy

Musk addressed the inadequacy of existing batteries and described them as “expensive, unreliable, stinky, and ugly.” The Tesla battery is exceptionally powerful and relatively compact.

In order to make all transport, electricity and all heating renewable, we need 2 billion powerpacks releasing 200,000 gwh. Musk pointed out that currently, we have 2 billion cars and trucks on the road. The importance of that statement is to provide a comparison figure that people can relate to, suggesting that if we can do that, we can transition the world.

Aside from providing a cleaner source of energy, there are other benefits to purchasing the Tesla Battery. Firstly, it can be used as a backup energy source in the case of a power outage. It is also a solution for people who live in remote parts of the world, who don’t have electricity, or for whom it is too expensive. The battery works “off the grid.”

The fundamental question Elon Musk posed in the presentation was, in his words, “What do we need to transition the world to sustainable energy?” And the point he pressed in the presentation was that is was incredibly easy to do so.

According to the energy.gov, the average American spends $3,052 annually on energy. The Powerwall costs $3,500, (plus the cost of the panels and installation) and that’s a one-time purchase.

I believe that this solution is entirely feasible. With the Powerwall, sustainable energy sources become more accessible to people, and based on what they spend on electricity in a year, most would save money within a few years–specially if it’s permanent and if the government got involved to make the battery cheaper.

Musk also went beyond that, offering to share technology with other companies so the price of the battery goes down and everyone can participate in the transition to sustainable energy.

My only criticism of the presentation is that it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The battery is one part of the package, but Musk didn’t make clear where the cables are coming from, how to install the battery, who will install the system, whether the solar panels are also Tesla, and so on.

Musk finished the presentation with this statement, “No incremental CO2, that’s the future we need to have, and the path that I’ve talked about, solar panels, that’s the only path I know that can do this. And I think it’s something we must do, and we can do and we will do.”

Watch the full presentation here: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8527543/elon-musk-tesla-battery-feels

Ella Donesky
Staff Writer

This year, three SLA seniors were each rewarded with a $500 scholarship to assist them in creating their capstone projects.

Wynn Geary’s Capstone was to start the first “Smart Beehive in the City.” The project involves sensors and a camera to track the health of a bee colony. Geary is a 3rd year beekeeper and will soon have a Buzzfeed article written about him and his hive.

Geary purchased a camera, $200 worth of sensors (including an optical dust sensor and weight sensors) and bee boxes. The sensors are used to determine the temperature, humidity, noise levels, and pollen levels inside the hive. For example, when there is an absence of a Queen Bee, the bees get louder. Using the noise sensors, you can better identify the cycles and patterns within a hive.

“There’s been a lot of talk about Smart Beehives, and I wanted to start one and see if I could make one better than other people out there creating them and create one that’s more tailored to bees. One that’s actually created by a beekeeper,” Geary said about the project

“There are some out there, but they’re done by sensory experts, they don’t know what’s going to actually help people understand what’s happening in the hive.”

Klarissa Hudson’s Capstone involved raising money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, through bake sales. She also raised funds for her project by buying brownies and cookies from the many bake sales held throughout the school year.

Hudson didn’t use the grant, due to complications about submitting a receipt, but nonetheless her project was successful, raising almost $1000 through fundraising.

Hudson would have used the Grant to help pay for the supplies and snacks, because she acquired the supplies through money provided by her parents.

“I kinda changed the process of my whole project. My idea at the beginning was to make stuffed animals and cards for the kids themselves, hand-make them, and give them to the kids.” Unfortunately, CHOP denied hand-made things, so she had to buy individually wrapped gifts. Ultimately, she decided on donating the money she raised.

I asked Geary and Hudson if they thought that receiving the Capstone Grant allowed them to create a better Capstone Project.

Geary was emphatic in his response: “100%. I went to TFI and I asked them for a grant, they wouldn’t give it to me, I went to Whole Foods and I asked them for a grant, but it’s SLA that’s really been able to fund it. Without them, I couldn’t buy 500 dollars worth of sensors and cameras.”

Geary, who initially didn’t know about the program, first turned to other companies looking for grant money

By contrast, Hudson regrets missing the requirements to get her grant.

“[The Capstone Grant] would have been really helpful, because my parents had to basically get a loan to help get me money to go buy things from the store.” Hudson said.

Naihema Powell’s Capstone was a fashion show, held at SLA. Unlike Geary and Hudson, she was able to return the Grant provided to her by SLA, through ticket sales for the fashion show. She only needed the money to start the project.

“My beehive is going to be the most technologically advanced beehive in the world.” Geary stated with a laugh. He followed up with, “I think it’s going to be really awesome to be able to give a shout out to SLA as my capstone. To be able to say thank you to SLA, to say thanks you guys for a great 4 years.”

Hudson said, “Personally, I had a boyfriend who was at CHOP and the hospital really helped him recover, and get healthy and so I was really thankful to the hospital. I’ve gone there before, and so I wanted to give back to the hospital and I know that by doing this capstone, it was my way of doing something that was within my limitations that I could do to help them.”

Wynn Geary, Klarissa Hudson and Naihema Powell are set to present their Capstones on June 8th.

The money for the Capstone Grant was provided by the book sales from SLA English and Journalism teacher, Ms. Pahomov. While this is the first year SLA has provided Capstone Grants, when you become a senior, and if this opportunity is still available, make sure to apply! And then you might have a buzzfeed (or an slamedia) article written about you and your project!

Darius Purnell

Staff Writer

We are all now used to project based learning where we look more at process of collaboration and inquiry to establish how well we learn. Sometimes we forget that other high school are not like that. It may be a difficult task for us to bring this new curriculum to other well known high schools, so we start off little by little with middle schools.

Chester Arthur School, located at 2000 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA 19146, will be redesigned for project based learning allowing extra freedom for curriculum.

That is her opinion and I ask other who are informed that also attended Chester Arthur, Collin Pierce and Jahmar Askew.

I asked the two students how the curriculum was while they attended Chester Arthur.

Collin said “The teachers would just talk towards us in groups. They were more of a lecture based teaching.”

Also what was said was that the teachers mainly focused on monthly standardized testing- Benchmarks and the PSSA.

They both came to a conclusion that now having a curriculum of project based would allow the students to be more interested and helps the students stay more focused because of a past of juvenile behavior.

To expand a little further I then interviewed Mr. Lehmann about the entire project and questions relation to it. He said that the partnership began way before the redesign. The principal wanted to follow the same inquiry based learning SLA. “Her and her teachers came many times to observe classrooms and attended Educon.” He said that there is a woman behind inquiry learning that checks in and visits the school 2 times a month.

I then began to ask for his word on the project of an SLA Middle School. Mr. Lehmann said that it would be at Powell and open for those students

From all these projects I began to wonder how far Lehmann wants to go and how many schools would have the name SLA in their title in the city of Philadelphia or maybe in other states and countries. Mr. Lehmann suggested that it there might be more expansion in Philadelphia, that it depends if the interest of inquiry based learning continues. He then said that if they do expand out of state and to other countries, the name may not necessarily be called SLA.