The ShopGirls of Granite Falls (WA) High School are the first-ever all-female team to successfully design, build, and race a prototype diesel car in the Shell Eco-marathon. The team took first place in the diesel fuel-efficiency category with a vehicle that achieved 470 miles per gallon! The idea for the ShopGirls came when Vervia Gabriel, career…

This article describes an electrical technology experiment that shows students how to determine the cost of using an electrical appliance. The experiment also provides good math practice and teaches basic electricity terms and concepts, such as volt, ampere, watt, kilowatt, and kilowatt-hour. This experiment could be expanded to calculate the cost…

Most high school students are at an age when they are learning to drive. They often want to offer input when their parents decide on what vehicle to purchase, so the activity described in this article should have direct personal interest for them. It allows students to use technology and mathematics to determine the environmental impacts of…

As a child, the author and his father built a basement workshop where the father taught himself radio and television repair, and the son learned skills that led him to an engineering career. In this article, the author relates how his father gave him a lesson that showed cars are actually rolling power plants. Here, he explains how cars can be…

Five years ago, Leon Strecker's technology education class at Darien High School came up with the idea of building a fuel cell-powered go-kart. In previous years, the class had worked on other creations, such as electric cars that competed in a state-sponsored race and a full-size hovercraft. But students had not taken on anything anywhere near…

Energy is the lifeblood of the United States. It powers its industries and keeps its economy humming. The nation's progress has relied on making energy abundantly available to support the growth of new ideas and products, and the issue of renewable energy is an increasingly important one. In this article, the author discusses some of the basics of…

Many teachers find developing a new lesson or course quite difficult. It would be nice to have all necessary information, lesson plans and assessment materials ready at hand. But most often, they find themselves on their own when it comes to lesson and course development. The author faced this situation when he was asked to develop a lesson on…

The Tour de Sol marked its 15th year in 2003. Sponsored by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), the annual event showcases varied sustainable transportation modalities through a contest that evaluates vehicles according to numerous criteria, including safety, handling, practicality, and fuel (energy) efficiency. The only unifying…

Fuel cells may seem like a science fiction fantasy to many people, since they are an efficient and nonpolluting power source producing little noise and having no moving parts. But this futuristic energy source not only exists, it has played a key role in providing electricity on spacecraft since the 1960s. Currently, technologists are developing…

In conjunction with the FreedomCAR (Cooperative Automotive Research) and Fuel Initiative, President George W. Bush has pledged nearly two billion dollars for fuel cell research. Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors have unveiled fuel cell demonstration vehicles, and all three of these companies have invested heavily in fuel cell research. Fuel cell…