SATs, Socials and Solar Vehicles

--Richard Mandel

We're going to let you in on a little secret that doesn't get a lot of play in the national media -- not all high school kids are "slackers" or walking vendettas waiting for the first opportunity to open fire.

Student-driven auto design

Actually, it was 10 years ago that Bill Bigelow, an Applied Science teacher at Contoocook Valley Regional High School, Peterborough, NH, offered 14 shop students the challenge of creating and building a solar-powered electric race car, the first to be built by high-school students. They were assisted by advisors in the community, including an engineer and a machinist from NH Ball Bearing, and Graham Walter, an engineer from Markem Inc. Work on the project became an after-school activity, at an age when most kids worry about tests or what parties to go to. The resulting vehicle, Sol Survivor I, did well in national competitions against entries from Worchester Polytechnic, MIT and Dartmouth, despite being constructed of non-exotic materials that suited the team's meager budget.

Two years later, the ConVal Solar Car team moved off campus, with more volunteers from the community and with the help of private funds. Students became involved in specialties such as refining systems on the vehicle (now Sol Survivor II), driver training, race logistics, PR and fund-raising. This entailed long hours after school, but the program never lacked for interested, dedicated students. The next vehicle, SSIII, finished second in the 1993 Tour de Sol, and was the first of its kind to carry an extra passenger of a 130 lb. mass minimum.

Today, many high school students participate in design challenges. They're developing electric cars and boats, and even robots that directly compete with projects from universities. Sol Survivor IV, a two-person commuter proposal that can travel thirty miles one-way at secondary highway speeds before a recharge, now sports Macpherson suspension, improved PV panels and regenerative braking, winning trophies in mountain climbs and distance runs for the (now) Monadnock Solar Car Team. On the drawing board: a two-seat delivery vehicle. Once again, high-school student volunteers are leading the entire operation, along with advisors like Graham Walter and the assistance and backing from an array of local and corporate sponsors such as Bentley Software, Enron Corp. and Solarex.

For more information:

Circle 475 -Monadnock Solar Car Team.