STEM education that also centers the arts — STEAM — has been shown to be an effective means to expand access and excellence in science, technology, engineering, and math education.

Arch of Time will provide a space for STEM and STEAM education, a destination for schools from K-12, community college, and graduate university programs. As a celestial timepiece, the artwork provides a visceral experience of our human relationship to the vastness of the cosmos. Visitors to the site will feel the Earth moving as Arch of Time’s light display gently travels across the ground plane before them. 

Students will learn about solar photovoltaic science and engineering as they monitor the energy production of the artwork in real-time. Arch of Time incorporates custom solar cladding, each facet of which is oriented towards the sun at a particular time of day. 

The artwork will serve as a large-scale experiment in solar energy production, collecting data on the performance of modules across a wide spectrum of orientations. Students will be able to compare the energy production of morning, mid-day, and late afternoon modules and create visualizations and models using the open-source data.

A unique suite of bilingual educational materials for students of all ages will provide new curricula and project-based learning modules that can be paired with visits to the artwork.

With a mission to provide education on environmental issues through a cultural lens, LAGI has inspired a generation of young people to be curious about renewable energy technology by providing a point of entry through art and creativity. Arch of Time will provide a model and inspiration for project based learning wherein students can engage with their own ideas of how to creatively weave renewable energy into creative projects and discover that renewable energy can be beautiful.