15 minutes or less

Harness the sun’s energy!

This eco-friendly project combines creativity, sustainability, and engineering to create a miniature dwelling powered by the sun.

Creativity
Golden yellow background with a small simple house crafted from bright yellow and aqua paper, with a small solar panel attached to the roof.

How to Prepare:

Collect the following items before you begin:

  🦺Safety Note! Make sure you have adult supervision when working with electricity and sharp tools!

Build Your Solar-Powered Paper House!

Step 1: Start by printing out your template on cardstock paper.

Step 2: Cut your cardstock around the solid black lines. To cut out your windows, get an adult and your box cutter.

Step 3: Fold the house along the dotted lines. 

💡Activity Hack!
Your ruler can help you make a straight fold!

Step 4: Add double-sided tape to the flaps on the bottom of the house and tape it to the base. We’ll be saving the roof for the next few steps!

How to Connect the Solar Panel to Your Paper House

Step 5: Fold the roof in half along the dotted line, with the line on the inside of the roof.

Step 6: Open up the LED leads so that the bulb can lay flush along the dotted fold line of the inside of the roof.

Step 7: Place the LED on the roof fold line with the positive lead of the LED (the long one) on the side marked with a “+”. Tape securely with copper tape, following the circuit line, and wrap the tape around to the top side of the roof where the solar panel will go. *Make sure your copper tape will line up with the contact on the solar panel and fold over so the sticky side is up.

Step 8: Repeat step 3 with the negative LED lead (the short one) on the side marked with a “–”.

Step 9: If your solar panel has wires, gently remove them with the scissors and stick the solar panel to the copper tape with the positive terminal on the same end as the positive circuit line.

Step 10: Connect the roof to the house walls with a few pieces of double-sided tape.

Step 11: Place the house in the sun to watch the LED bulb glow as the solar panel absorbs sunlight!

If your bulb isn’t glowing, check:

  • Does the solar panel have enough sun? Make sure you test it in bright sunlight!
  • Are your LED bulbs fresh? Check them on a battery pack.

Solar-Powered Paper House Complete! Congratulations!

How It Works

You’ve probably seen solar panels at work on houses, schools, car charging stations, street lights, pool heaters, and more. 

Scientists and engineers are working to develop solar-powered transportation like trains and cars, too!

Solar panels harness energy from the sun and turn it into electricity. Panels are made up of many photovoltaic cells that absorb photon light particles. When the sun hits the cell, the photons in the sunlight excite the electrons in the cell. These electrons move within the solar cell until they reach an electrode where the electricity is captured.

Next time you’re out and about, check your surroundings and see if you can spot some solar panels!

This activity is inspired by: 

https://leftbraincraftbrain.com/solar-powered-paper-house-project/