Simply put, I teach high school students to build full size electric cars since 2008.  The Film, “Who killed the electric car” is the part of my curriculum.  I have focused my teaching career on teaching green confidence to the youth of America.  But I need support to continue teaching green in a NJ school.  Budgets cuts always threaten the technology classes.  Please mention my story on your web site to help support my green car building program.

How it all got started:

In the summer of 2008 I attended a 10 day electric conversion class in San Diego.  It was exactly the type class I needed; a hands-on, start to finish, conversion of a 2001 VW beetle.  With 3 teachers and 25 eager adults we stripped the car of its gasoline engine, designed an EV system and installed it.  I was so proud when we finished the car and rolled it out for the first time.  It was like an episode of Monster Garage, we barley made the deadline.  We had a goal and we worked at it every day till it was done.  Looking back in 2011, I can still remember the sun lit garage filled with bursting personalities ready to learn.

Right from the 9AM start we had engineer guest lectures and in the afternoon we worked on the car.  We met every day from 9Am to 3Pm then I would hit the beach.  At 31 years of age in 2008, I was still just a big kid from NJ, and California dreaming was part of my thoughts growing up.  I rented an apartment 10 miles from the shop and bought a beach cruising bicycle to get around.  I felt free.  Then I thought to myself, how can I bring this freedom home to my friends and community?

Back home in NJ I was surrounded by friends and colleges that could not see a good solution to the rising cost of gasoline.  Not just the dollar cost but the cost to our confidence.  The consumers had the power but not the knowledge of a working practical electric car and therefore no confidence to go astray from gasoline.  As the cost of fuel went up we just paid it.  There is a cost to the air and environment as well but again, without consumer knowledge, the cost is invisible to most people.  Education was the missing link.

Armed with my successful electric car conversion knowledge, I proposed that we convert a car to electric at the school in the fall of 2008.  At the time gasoline had peeked at 4 dollars in NJ and the school administration approved the project.  They took a chance.  It took 700 extra after school hours to convert the car with students, but we did it.  I brought educational freedom to a small high school in NJ.

The EV rabbit conversion:

http://videos.nj.com/star-ledger/2009/04/west_new_york_students_convert.html

Fall of 2011 we are building an electric 1950’s Lotus 7:

http://www.oncoursesystems.com/school/webpage.aspx?id=382620&xpage=626590

I have made a few videos showing the Alternative Fuel cars the students and I built.  Here is a video of me filling up the tank of a Veggie Fueled car.

Ok so it has been more than a week since I updated the blog.  More like a year.  It's so demanding to learn about and teach alternative fuel that the web site goes on hold.  Moving forward my students and I have created a new alt fuel vehicle.

I don't have much time to write about it today but I do have a photo of the car.  We converted a Diesel car to run on used vegetable oil.  Then to prove the point we added a French Fryer to the rear of the car.  I put fresh oil in the back of the car and get to cooking.  When I am done cooking frys, I transfer the used oil to a filter.  From the filter the oil is them pumped out to the Vegetable tank.  This is them used as fuel for the Diesel engine.

Well that was just a short entry to the blog for now.  The canversion kit that I used is from a great company named Greasecar.  Check it out.  http://www.greasecar.com/

I am a huge fan of the Discovery Channel as are most curious people.  Personally Discovery changed my life.  I was just a dreaming car designer in 2001 when I graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.  I was forced to work in product design due to what 9/11 did to the economy the car companies were hiring very few.  In 2002 Monster Garage aired on Discovery channel.  This changed everything.  Instead of drawing the cars I wanted built, I was inspired to pick up a welder and build the cars myself.  In a fury of learning, I begged a railing shop to teach me how to weld.  Next I rented a welder from Home Depot then with a day of practice I bought the welder I could afford.  It was also the cheapest welder, a Clarke for 100 bucks.  I welded everything I could.  Now that I was playing with tools and fire I turned my attention to the old motorcycle I bought a few years prior.  It didn’t run and I had no license.  I worked every night from 7 when I got home till after 12 for a month.  I got it running, got my license, and got on the road to my educational recovery.  I say recovery as I never had a shop class in high school as there was no class at my school.

 

 

Jesse James, the host of Monster Garage, inspired me to take my education by force.  Now that I was repairing dead motorbikes and melting metal, I could turn my attention back to car design and with my new confidence I could see the limitations of my career in product design.  You see in product design you draw, brainstorm, and then rush to make the prototype the sales team wants.   But the sales team has no idea what the public wants as they are not designers.  Proof is there are only a few really good products out there to buy, the rest are throwaways.  So about this time I started looking for a new career and job.  I needed a job that let me be me.  I want to melt metal, design cars, and inspire others the way Jesse James did.  Teaching technology education would be my destiny.  I never thought of that job as I never saw a teach-ed class growing up.  I found teach-ed threw a round about way.  I was an industrial design major in college so I have hands on skills and art skills.  By now I had heard of Tech Ed classes but had never seen one.  After sitting in on some high School art classes, I got the idea that if I could teach art then I may be able to teach car design.  Even better I could teach car building.  This all lead to me investigating Tech Ed classes.  I then joined the NJ Tech Ed Association and the rest is history.  No more just drawing cars, I am building cars and inspiring many.  And what better way to inspire people than with the truthful pursuit of Alternative Fuels.

 

 

I have been on the intense roller coaster ride that is high school technology education for 5 years.  All the climbs are hard and all the thrills are worth the climbs.  I had no idea it would be this intense.  Most interesting is that as I have gotten my education back by building cars with students.  As it turns out I am not alone on getting the educational shaft.  Most have no idea how products are built, which products are efficient and most important how to build products in harmony with the earth.  My story is a microcosm of what is really going on.  I find that the biggest educational holes are in science and Tech Ed.

 

 

Educated consumers is what I thought capitalism was all about but that is not possible when technology education, were a person learns about product design, is just an elective.  Plus tech-ed is closed in most schools.  For example most adults and students have no idea when the first electric car was built or that electric cars are even an option.

 

 

If your still reading this than you want to know more.  Here are a few links to help out.

 

 

First is the NJTEA… That is the New Jersey Technology Education Association

http://www.njtea.org/

 

Oh you’re not reading this to be inspired to teach?  Ok than you may be here to learn about car design.  Check out the full season DVD’s of Monster Garage for inspiration.  Or check out Motorcycle Mania.

 

 

Still not for you?  Ok than you are here to learn more about Green car conversions.  Ok I have something for you.  Let’s start with a video about electric car conversions.

http://videos.nj.com/star-ledger/2009/04/west_new_york_students_convert.html

 

I happen to pick up a magazine off the rack that I have never seen before.  It was late I was passing through 42^nd street port authority waiting for a bus.  At the top shelf of a magazine and convenience store was an interesting cover.  I mean really this magazine was out of reach.  I am 6 feet tall and had to stretch to get it.  Plus I already had picked out a Mountain biking magazine to buy.  On the cover is a very pretty middle 30’s woman holding a hand full of dirt.  The main article is about the environment and top soil erosion.  I only picked it up because she is pretty but inside the magazine are some great articles that took me by surprise.    Have you ever read the book the Alchemist?  It is a great book about the journey of life.  Well there is an article about how hard writing is by the author Paulo Coelho.  I had no idea it was written by him till I saw his name at the bottom of the page.  It really gave credibility back to the article and the magazine as a hole.  So I bought the magazine and read on.  The feature article about dirt is very important.  Top Soil erosion is as important as having clean air or water.  Due to our modern way of throwing out food as oppose to recycling or composting we are throwing out the nutrients that replenish top soil.  The same day I read this article happen to be the same day that the school building facilitator investigated adding a green house to my Alternative Fuel program at the High School I teach.  So it must an important coincidence.  Anyway if you’re interested the magazine is named Ode.  http://www.odemagazine.com/  Check it out.  It’s good.

I will start by saying NSTA…  That is the National Science Teachers Association convention in Philadelphia.  You might be think to yourself, “What is an Alternative Fuel HS Auto Shop teacher doing at the science teachers convention.  But that is exactly where all the auto shop teachers should be.  Auto Shop is just applied science by converting chemical energy into mechanical energy in a car.  Plus 3 car manufactures were there to promote their “Go Green” products.  GM, Toyota, and Subaru.

As an auto shop teacher I was a fish out of water.  I walked into the Mecca of science conventions.  There were over 10,000 attendees from data collected by NTSA.  I was the only auto shop teacher but I think any auto shop teacher would greatly benefit from crossing over to look at science specific lessons for inspiration.

Here are some NSTA highlights.  First off GM was on hand to represent the mighty Volt.  They rolled out a Volt chassis with all the guts.  It was like a frog dissection out for all the science teachers to see.  Mel Fox, a GM engineer, was there to explain the parts.  Mel was a great inspiration me and my students.  She explained the car and how she made her way into a green career at GM.

Another NSTA highlight was the hydrogen education booths.  Dane Urry of Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies had a remote control car powered by a little hydrogen cell.  Being the kid that I am, I encouraged Dane to charge it up and take it out for a spin.  There we are running over feet and under tables with a clean burning remote control car like kids with a new toy.  Green technology is fun.  I even strapped a small video camera to the front of the car to share the fun with my students when I got back to the classroom.  Showing that science and alternative fuels are fun is great inspiration for them.  You can see it on YouTube.  Look up H-Cell 2.0 hydrogen fuel cell remote control car - fast!

Now that the science teacher convention is over I can bring all that energy and enthusiasm to the classroom.  I must thank GM for inviting me.  Specifically Eden Litt and Laurie Mayers of the Teach Green Blog.  Spreading the word of Teaching Green is essential to America’s advancement.

My next blog will be about converting a diesel car to run on Vegetable oil.