What’s Right With Our Schools: Ivy Academy helping Ukrainian Students
SODDY DAISY, TN (WDEF) – The war in Ukraine continues to drag on with devastating consequences. Many Americans are doing what they can to help. That includes students at Ivy Academy. They’ve created a way for students in Ukraine to have a portable power supply. That’s a far-reaching example of what’s right with our schools.
“Open her up you see you get there’s your solar panel, believe it or not this is a solar panel.”
“And we happen to build 20 solar powered suitcases, was something that was um it would fit the build,” said Jeremy Webb, CTE director and STEM Teacher at Ivy Academy.
“This is the solar backpack. Uh, we as students designed it for uh people in Ukraine. We designed it for them to have power uh because their power… they don’t have stable power because of the bombing and stuff like that,” said Madison Dickerson, a junior at Ivy Academy.
“This is what a weekend sounds like in Ukraine. Two rounds of Russian missiles pounded the country today. Hardest hit a residential apartment block in Denpro.”
“They are in a war zone. They’ve been bombed. Their connect, their internet connection isn’t great. They don’t have any. They don’t power. And the only way that the students can communicate with their parents is their cell phone. They can take this and it can power fans and those very hot bomb shelters. They can power their cell phones so they can let their parents know that they’re doing okay,” said Dickerson.
“And it’s as simple as this. We’re going to fold out our solar panel. Your batteries down there. We uh mounted it to uh the bag itself so it wouldn’t move, move around. If you come around here, we uh screwed the… uh inverter into the bag itself, so you drop it down. This is your charge controller that takes the 25 volts that this produces… and takes it down to where the battery can handle it to about uh 12 volS. Plug her up… there you go.”
“I just want to say it’s, it’,s it’s, it’s going very well. But it’s only going very well because of the kids. You know, we have a great group of kids here at Ivy Academy. Our Administration is super supportive. Um… and it’s, it’s they’re a big reason why the project has been as successful as it has. I mean the kids they’re getting an opportunity to do something for someone else. They’re getting an opportunity to help people that they they wouldn’t normally be able to help. Um you know instead of just local community they’re reaching out uh you know across the other side of the world to help people. And these folks are sending us videos thanking us. They’re, they’re utilizing the projects and the kids really enjoy that. It it gives them a sense of accomplishment,” said Webb.
