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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The engine parts on display Monday night at the Huntsville school board meeting didn't look like anything special, at least not at first glance.
A closer look, which showed that each piece came from a 3D printer, gave the board and the public a glimpse at what students are learning in the district's advanced manufacturing academy and through Greenpower USA.
This is not the manufacturing of the 1950s, said Mike Evans, the district's coordinator of advanced manufacturing, engineering and design and executive director of the Greenpower USA Foundation.
"We are now using innovative, cutting edge, state-of-the-art technology," Evans said.
For the past two years, Huntsville's "Team USA," made up of students from the Huntsville Center for Technology, has been the sole team from the United States invited to compete in the UK's Greenpower National Finals. Evans told those present Monday that his students this past year were able to think of an improvement that their electric car needed, design and manufacture the part - via 3D printer - in Huntsville, and bring it to England to install it into the car, which had already been shipped.
They raced the car just two days later, he said.
Besides design and manufacturing, the new academy also teaches students what goes into prototyping a design, testing it, seeking funding and more.
"If you think about what we're doing, we're setting a trend. We're training our students to be competitive in a global workforce," Evans said.
The district's advanced manufacturing students are also using their studies to become the first students in the nation to design and create hardware for the International Space Station. The students, using software and the 3D printer, will fabricate a bracket clamp for use on the ISS.
Evans went on to talk more about the new Greenpower USA program.Superintendent Casey Wardynski in May announced that "Team USA" had made such an impression on the Greenpower leadership that Huntsville City Schools had been chosen as the home of its new American branch of the program.
The new Jemison and Grissom high schools, as well as Whitesburg P-8, will constitute the home bases of the program, with each school boasting a racetrack. Top entries in the Huntsville-based regional heat will earn spots at the Greenpower National Finals held each October at Goodwood Motor Circuit in Chichester, West Sussex, England.
"The Greenpower initiative is expanding nationally, and internationally, and I'm proud to say that Huntsville is leading the way," Evans said.
The 13-member Whitesburg P-8 Greenpower team, "Mach XIII," was present at Monday's board meeting. Ashley Kimball, a leader of the team, spoke up about what the students are learning.
She explained that the team, chosen from about 200 applicants at the school, is using a kit to build its electric car, described by Greenpower as an IET Formula Goblin.
"When I first heard about this, I was really excited," Kimball said. "I could take my love of math and science and use it for something really fun in school."
The program also helps the students learn team-building and communication skills, she said.
Ben Porter, "Mach XIII" co-leader, explained how the team constructed a wind tunnel to learn about aerodynamics and showed board members drawings of designs for the car itself.
"What Greenpower's really taught me is hands-on," Porter said.
He said that his favorite part of the program so far has been driving the "kit car" on the school track.
"Not this one," Porter said, pointing toward the car "Team USA" raced in England, which was on display in the board room. "That would be really cool, though."
Full Article: http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2014/12/huntsville_boe_meeting_greenpo.html
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