In 2019, the PES UERJ Student Chapter held a call for new members under the theme: renewable energy. On August 20, the UERJ PES Student Chapter, together with its Student Branch, held the 3RD call for new members. The main goal was to attract new members to add to the existing activities and encourage the creation of new projects. With this in mind, the group saw the need for a trainee process, where the students would be taught about the general activities of the chapter and evaluated through their participation in the RES project (Renewable Energy in Schools) that was under development.

The RES project aims to teach high school students about renewable energy, therefore, the candidates were divided into 5 supervised groups, where each had the duty to create a presentation on the theme and the technology chosen for the group. The technologies covered the subjects on photovoltaic energy, wind energy, fuel cells, biomass, and hydropower.

On October 2^nd, presentations were made according to the standard required by the project, with theoretical classes, with quality and easy to understand, in addition, there was an explanation about educational kits that would be acquired in the future to carry out practical activities with students. From there, new members of the chapter were invited to participate in the real implementation of the RES project.

Now, with the participation of 3 new members, it was possible to structure the project better and faster, the first change was the definition of addressing, in the first moment, only the following technologies: solar energy, wind energy and fuel cell. The presentations were updated to a more attractive and interactive format, the purchase of educational kits was also made from a proposal issued to PES MDI (Member Driven Initiative) and finally we could count on the support of affinity groups WIE and Sight, to address issues such as women in science and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

The new challenge is adapting the project to be presented by online platforms, trying to outline the social distance measures enacted to prevent the proliferation of COVID-19. The results have been excellent, with the entire team being very helpful and engaged.

Following the changes around us, we at PES & IAS, chapters of the IEEE UERJ Student Branch, know the importance of bringing knowledge of renewable energies to schools, after all, the students where they are, are the future of a generation. With that, the Renewable Energy in Schools (RES) project was born. It aims precisely to introduce renewable energies to high school students in public schools. In the project, we presented slides showing a little of the theoretical part of photovoltaic, wind and fuel cell energies. After this process, it’s time for practice: we offer educational kits that include a wind turbine, solar panel and a fuel cell, all in small versions. Therefore, activities are proposed for a better understanding of technologies.

The first school chosen was “Faetec Juscelino Kubitschek”, in June 2020. Originally, the project would be carried out in person in classrooms, however, with the pandemic, the presentation of the slides and kits was online and generated a very nice result. The students were very interested in renewable energies and always tried to clear their doubts about the subject. It was very gratifying at the end of the presentations, to receive positive feedback: many students praised the project, stressed the importance of it and even asked us if in the future we are going to give lectures talking about more sources of renewable energy. The initial success of RES increasingly motivates us to improve and give more life to our project. 

Lucas Gonçalves da Silva
UERJ IEEE PES & IAS Student Joint Chapter Treasurer

Iolanda Thomaz de Almeida Terra Rocha
UERJ IEEE PES & IAS Student Joint Chapter Secretary