Meeting America’s Science Challenge
The Junior Solar Sprint Program
By Sandy Thomas
What is the Junior Solar Sprint? It’s a solar-powered race! It’s a fun, creative, and disciplined design project for middle school students. It’s a model of a sustainable transportation system—solar energy used to power an electric car. It’s an exciting, motivating component of NESEA’s educational resources on transportation. It’s an activity package that ties together student-learning in science, technology, environment, and society. In sum, the Junior Solar Sprint (JSS) program is project-based, hands-on learning at its best.
This exemplary program provides young people with an opportunity to work together to create competitive model cars that are powered entirely by solar energy. Working in teams, participating students are provided with a standard motor and a solar panel. They design and build the chassis, wheels, and transmission from any other materials they choose. With guidance from teachers, parents, and mentors, fifth to eighth graders are encouraged to use math, science, and technology principles along with creativity to design cars that can win competitions.
The program starts at a grassroots level when students and teachers hold local community races. Winners of these races then advance through county- and state-level races and then move on to NESEA’s regional competition, the Northeast Junior Solar Sprint Championship. Many of these races include displays of solar and clean transportation technologies such as solar-cooled ice cream, solar-powered PA systems, hybrid cars, and human-electric hybrid bicycles and go-carts.
A long-time advocate for this program, Cameron Johnson of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, says, "I'm a scientist by training and this is one of the best programs I've seen for getting students involved in a scientific effort where they must test principals and find out if their theory works. It brings out enthusiasm from students, real involvement and interest in understanding scientific principals like friction, aerodynamics, and electricity."
The History of the JSS
The Junior Solar Sprint was conceived by the US Department of Energy (DOE), developed by Argonne National Laboratory in 1993, and then overseen by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for several years. Starting in 1997, the US DOE no longer had funding for the program but NESEA has succeeded in securing annual funds to run a JSS program for the Northeast states. Most notably, the Toyota USA Foundation supported the northeast JSS between 1999 and 2001, while the US Army has sponsored it this past school year.
In 1993, NESEA began promoting the JSS as part of our annual electric vehicle competition, the Tour de Sol: The Great American Green Transportation Festival. NESEA encouraged many people to become "Area Coordinators"—those key individuals who create state- and county-level JSS races, and reach out to teachers to encourage their participation in the program. Area Coordinators may be volunteers or may work for state government, industry, or non-profit organizations.
When we starting working with teachers, they asked for curricula and educational materials to help them prepare students and to increase their understanding of the concepts underlying solar technologies and electric transportation, and the social studies issues raised in the study of transportation.
In response, NESEA created interdisciplinary curricula for middle school students that foster critical thinking and decision-making skills related to the environmental and economic implications of everyday transportation and energy choices. Packaged with the JSS program, these materials tie together student-learning in the areas of science, technology, environment, and society. You can visit our website (www.nesea.org) and click on K-12 Education to download many of the lessons we developed.
In 1996, NESEA began holding teacher-training workshops to further encourage teachers to use the NESEA curricula and the JSS program. We learned that teachers felt much more confident and were much more likely to use the materials when they had both the curricula and training.
In 2001, the US Army partnered with NESEA to sponsor the JSS. With hands-on JSS experience as both a father and a mentor, Paul J. Hoeper, former Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, wholeheartedly supports the JSS. He notes that the U.S. Army understands that one of the greatest threats to our nation’s security is that "we are failing to create enough scientists, engineers, and mathematicians to maintain superpower status in the information age. The JSS can help to meet America’s science challenge."
Why is NESEA Involved?
In a word: empowerment. The JSS provides a realistic way for students to think critically about clean electricity and transportation, two of NESEA’s key areas of work. By building a model of a sustainable transportation system—emissions-free vehicles (electric-drive cars) powered by a renewable energy source (solar cells)—kids get excited about science and technology. Then ask them, "why electric vehicles?" and they explore many of the environmental, security, and health issues that our nation faces around energy and transportation.
Students become eager to learn science and technology when asked to design and build a model car of the future. They become proud of themselves when they make personal transportation choices that collectively avoid producing tons of greenhouse gases and when they can explain to others why this is important. These are just some outcomes of having students investigate "how we get around."
What Do Students Think?
Here are some of their actual comments: "This is the best science project I’ve ever done." "We should do more stuff like this in class." "Cool." One only needs to watch the pleasure in their faces when these model race cars speed toward the finish line to know that the JSS program is well worth the investment by parents, educators, and mentors.
How Can You Get Involved?
Let us count the ways!
Visit our website. Go to www.nesea.org/education. Here you can pick up terrific, user-friendly steps as you learn more about the JSS and how parents and teachers can help their students become part of this program.
Take a workshop. NESEA organizes and holds professional development workshops for teachers throughout late fall, winter, and spring.
Attend NESEA’s conference, "Energy in Schools" on November 14-15, 2002 in Albany, NY. It will include a 90-minute JSS session appropriate for formal and informal educators.
Run or join a race. Use JSS as an extracurricular activity and enlist other educators and parents to help. Or contact NESEA for the area race closest to you. Local races are usually held in May with the regional championship in June. We would be happy to steer you in the right direction!
Give this article to your middle-school-aged children and ask them to pass it on to their teachers. Teachers can download and print out a JSS flyer from our website.
NESEA Network