It is good to see the Housing Board trying to tap solar power in its projects (HDB exploring floating solar panels in open sea; June 9).

In recent years, Singapore has been making good progress in developing green buildings which include the use of solar power.

However, apart from HDB buildings, there are other places where we can leverage Singapore's climate to expand the use of solar energy.

One area the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources and the Ministry of Education can look into is the development of "green" schools using solar power.

Schools can make use of solar panels and renewable energy to meet their needs.

In addition, such an initiative will provide educational opportunities for students as they learn about solar energy.

Students can learn about the behaviour of light, perhaps through video cameras or by visiting the rooftop solar panels, to see how angling the solar panels changes their power production or observe the difference in energy production on sunny and cloudy days.

In the United States, some schools have been equipped with technology to help teachers weave the building's solar energy data into lessons.

Students learn about the statistical measures of mean, median and mode using the school's energy consumption numbers, or demonstrate transparency, translucency and opacity by covering solar panels with different materials and predicting the energy production.

Schools are the beating hearts of our local communities.

Let's help our students benefit from learning about renewable energy and, at the same time, motivate them to tackle climate change.

Han Shun Chou