A couple of weeks ago I talked about the EnergyWhiz Olympics in Florida where high school students in the area built and raced small hydrogen fuel cell autos. Middle schoolers also competed in the Hands-On-Hydrogen challenge as well.
Today I’d like to talk about a group of Montana middle school students who were challenged by their teacher to build their own small-scale hydrogen fuel cell autos. Teacher Geoff Casey challenged his eighth graders with a four week curriculum that helped students get a glimpse of the kinds of vehicles all major automakers are working on now.
There were a series of standards the autos had to meet in regard to time, distance and environmental soundness. A company called the Goodman Research Group that specializes in program evaluation and consultation, helped Mr Casey bring this project to fruition.
In addition to pouring in the water, seeing the electrolysis take place, an added bonus was that the students got a chance to present the running of their autos to Governor Brian Schweitzer. Kudos to Mr. Casey and other forward-thinking teachers for educating today’s kids about alternative energy today so we can all breathe a little easier tomorrow.