These electric cars have great value to the young people who built them http://www.ect.coop/emerging-technologies/electric-cars/2013-electric-vehicle-rally-day/55396 [images] A Car Rally with a Deeper Meaning By Michael W. Kahn Apr 30 2013
[images / Gary Bean http://www.ect.coop/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Rally-Story-1.jpg A driver in the electric vehicle rally puts his team’s car through its paces http://www.ect.coop/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Rally-Story-2.jpg That’s no alien. Under that helmet is a driver in the electric vehicle rally. Atop the helmet is a video camera ] They’re not street legal, and there’s no room to carry a pizza, but these electric cars have great value to the young people who built them. Thirteen teams—the largest showing ever—competed in the 10th annual Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas Electric Vehicle Rally, April 19. About 200 people attended, including volunteers, sponsors, and, of course, the students who designed and built the go-cart-style cars. They range from middle school to community college. Some went home with a trophy; all left with a universal sense of accomplishment. “It’s designed so they can have fun driving, but the kids that are really learning are the ones that will win the rally,” said Rob Roedel, manager of corporate communications at Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. “About 60 percent of the scoring is academic. Only about 40 percent of it is the driving aspect of the competition,” Roedel said. The co-op program focuses on math, auto mechanics, physics, engineering, electronics and journalism. “It’s just an amazing project because it encourages teamwork and problem solving,” said Alan Shedd, director of residential and commercial energy programs at Touchstone Energy®, who attended the rally in Little Rock and helped inspect the vehicles. “You can study science, math and engineering in the somewhat dry academic setting of a classroom. But if you instead do it in a moving vehicle, there’s something magical about vehicles and high school students,” said Shedd, who still drives the Toyota Prius hybrid converted to a plug-in hybrid electric in 2007 under a study run by NRECA’s Cooperative Research Network. “When it starts being a real-world problem, and you’ve got to apply all that knowledge that you learned to actually get this thing to work and get around the track, and perform better than your competition, it provides the incentive, the motivation, the impetus to actually pay attention in class,” he said. “Some of it is just helping kids who may have been at risk, or not really good students, to get excited about going to school,” Shedd added. Roedel has proof of that, thanks to a note from a teacher whose school had been participating in the program for two years. It spoke of the many “proud parents” of this year’s competitors, but also of a student who won one of the competitions. That student has been a “troublemaker,” the teacher wrote, but “has changed directions in his life” since joining the electric car program. “Something as simple as this program has reached out to that child and made a difference in their life,” Roedel said. “We want to increase the quality of life for the people we serve, and sometimes that involves getting programs out there that can reach children and keep them out of trouble.” Roedel also takes pride in a young woman who started in the program while in seventh grade. “She’s now a junior engineering major at Arkansas State University,” Roedel said. He recalled her saying what a difference the program made in her life, and how it influenced her career choice. “We always like to say there’s a ‘cooperative difference,’” Roedel added. “I would challenge anyone to find a better difference to make in someone’s life than reaching out to a child.” [© 2013 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association] http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-05-03/news/fl-cn-miramarev-0505-20130503_1_electric-vehicle-program-car-program-porsche School's electric vehicle program makes great strides Tucked away in a corner of the campus, the garage is home to both the auto service class and the electric vehicle team. Both programs fall under the eye of teacher Lowell Simmons, now marking his 30th year at … 5/3/2013 For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date Here are today's archive-only EV posts: EVLN: How Not To Install A Plugin Charging Station: A Case Study EVLN: Prof's Leaf, “The greenest car is the car I leave in the garage” EVLN: Solar nEV shines light on alternative energy @OHCHS EVLN: E-scooter maker Vmoto & Riba JV entering the Brazilian market + EVLN: Tesla taps Google for EV autopilot tech {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Student-EV-programs-change-risk-troublemakers-into-excited-about-school-tp4662978.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
