Just add sunshine, and you’ve got an instant classroom.
The “Solar Classroom in a Box,” a solar powered modular pod built entirely off the electrical grid, has landed in rural Kenya, where there’s lots of sunshine but little electricity.
The 20-by-9-foot classrooms can accommodate up to 40 students at a time, and come ready with 11 desktop computers, monitors, a server, projector and even a screwdriver for assembly.
“For nearly all, this will be their first ever experience with a computer,” Mike Rosenberg told Gizmag.com. Rosenberg is the founder of Aleutia, the British computer company behind the project.
Each classroom is made up of local materials, such as cinder blocks and a corrugated tin roof, with a light gauge steel frame. The panels are assembled on site, each marked with a number for easy construction. Aleutia’s Twitter feed shows one of the classrooms being built.
First of 47 prefab Aleutia Solar Classroom in a Box going up in rural Kenya to transform education @SafaricomFDN pic.twitter.com/9G7WveFiCT
— aleutia (@aleutia) June 24, 2015
The solar boxes cost about $20,000 each and have computers specifically designed to operate in the dust and heat of rural Africa.
New U.S. Plan for Solar Power Will Light Up Low-Income Homes
One of Kenya’s largest corporate charity groups, the Safaricom Foundation is footing the bill.
Aleutia plans to send them to each of Kenya’s 47 counties, where an estimated 20,000 kids will benefit from the little classrooms soaking up the sun.
(READ More at Fast Company) – Photos: Aleutia, Twitter
Educate Your Friends About This Story, Share It…
A new dawn of possibilities.