Conant students receive grant to build electric vehicle
Members of Conant High School’s Engineering and Electronics Club have the opportunity to come up with ideas this school year that could impact the way cars are made in the future.
Over the summer the club was awarded a $5,000 grant to design and build a one-of-a-kind electric vehicle. The grant came from the Square One Education Network, a nonprofit organization that provides funds to students from kindergarten to 12th grade who are interested in exploring science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The club’s faculty adviser, Peter Goss, said the grant requires that the students build the vehicle with only the money provided and include within it a technology “that hasn’t been done” by May 5, when they will transport the car to the Michigan International Speedway and have it judged against 10 other Midwest high schools’ creations.
At the competition, each school will have a chance to showcase their vehicle on three tracks, with the goal of attaining the most mileage on one set of batteries.
“I definitely think this is going to be a challenge for them, but I think they’re up to the challenge,” Goss said, adding that the club’s members have never built a car in the past.
Goss, who teaches applied technology classes at Conant, said the club’s 25 to 30 members have not started making plans for the vehicle yet due to Homecoming activities and a busy start to the school year, but that they will be meeting in about two weeks to draw out some preliminary design plans.
The students need to brainstorm ideas for what they want to create before Oct. 5, which is when members of the club’s executive board will head to Michigan to present their plans to Ford engineers, who will offer them advice and give a tour of their engineering facilities.
“The timeline is tight but the students are definitely up to the task,” Goss said, adding that the Ford engineers are planning to stay in touch with the students throughout the school year via Skype or occasional visits to help them work out problems.
Currently, the students are planning to start with a two-seat gasoline-powered go kart and slowly convert it into the electric vehicle. Goss said he believes their design “could really make a difference” in the engineering of cars in years to come and that the final product is sure to be “out of this world.”
The Engineering and Electronics Club will meet twice a week throughout the school year to work on the vehicle and will be given some help from members of the school’s Auto Club and Science Club.