Doing the Math on Sustainability

In Professor Victor Donnay’s class, student research adds up to real-world results.

By Melissa Scott

Victor Donnay and Kris Pasia outside of Coopertown Elementary

Math students in Professor of Mathematics Victor Donnay’s Math Modeling and Sustainability course are taking their math problem-solving skills out of the classroom and applying them to real-world situations with environmental and economic impacts.

For years, student findings and recommendations from Donnay’s course projects have led to concrete action in the community—such as the College buying an electric Blue Bus based on a cost-benefit analysis conducted in 2021, or Haverford Township budgeting $1 million for solar projects after a presentation in fall 2020.

Math Modeling and Sustainability, taught biannually and supported by the Praxis Program, has teams of students work to address a sustainability issue relevant to a community partner.

In fall 2024, Donnay, Kris Pasia ’25, and Priita Peterson ’26 presented a cost-benefit analysis of putting solar panels on two elementary schools to the Haverford School District.

Pasia, Peterson, and two other students, Virgina Do (HC ’25) and Leilani Soriano ’25, collaborated with the Philadelphia Solar Energy Association (PSEA) on a similar project for the Phoenixville School District when they took the course in fall 2023.

“Students get very motivated when they see that their math skills can be used to make a difference in their local community.”

Priita Peterson ’26, Pasia, and Donnay at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle.

Donnay invited Pasia and Peterson to continue working with him in spring 2024 on the Haverford School District analysis.

Starting with the district’s energy bills from October 2022 to September 2023, Pasia and Peterson determined how much electrical energy the Coopertown and Lynnewood elementary schools used. Then, working with an energy engineer and a team from PSEA, they learned how to use the software program Solar Edge to design several potential solar systems for the schools and the PV Watts program to calculate how much energy these systems would generate. They used that data to determine the financial feasibility and analysis of solar installation at the sites.

Along with the financial feasibility, they also considered the environmental benefits, including the total CO₂emissions avoided over 30 years.

“I enjoyed learning more about the behind-the-scenes of large construction and installation projects,” says Pasia, a math major and history minor. “I also used my math skills in the context of sustainability and was able to truly apply the content learned in class to a real-world situation.”

In January, the Haverford School Board voted unanimously to move forward with the next stage of the project: submitting a grant proposal to Pennsylvania’s Solar for Schools project that could fund up to 30 percent of the cost of the project. In April, while awaiting a decision on the grant award that would help fund panels on multiple schools in the district, the board committed to funding the solar installation at one, Coopertown School.

“Our project has continued to evolve based on the feedback we get, the new real-world developments, and the concerns and wants of the school district,” says Peterson, an environmental studies major and Spanish minor. The group has continued to update the original report with new information about the state grant, and has documented the threat of federal funding cuts and the possible loss of federal rebates.

“Students get very motivated when they see that their math skills can be used to make a difference in their local community,” Donnay says. “At the start, most students have not had the chance to apply math to a real-world problem. It takes them a while to start getting the hang of how to do this, but by the end of the term they have made good progress.”

Earlier this year, Donnay, Pasia, and Peterson gave a presentation on their work at a national conference. They have since been invited to write articles about it for several publications, including the Mathematical Association of America’s publication Focus.

“It’s rewarding to see the pride the students take in their final work,” Donnay says. “And the community partners are very appreciative as well.”