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May 21, 2004/Sivan 1 5764, Vol. 56, No.35
Jess Schwartz students build a solar boat
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
While browsing the course catalog at Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, you won't happen across listings for shop classes, yet this year several students had real-life lessons in woodworking, electronics and mechanics.
The school received a $3,000 grant from Salt River Project to participate in the SRP Solar Spectacular 2004 - an event in which Arizona high schools race solar-powered boats of their own construction and design at Tempe Town Lake.
The solar boat project is part of an SRP program called Enviro-Tech, which challenges "high school students to apply technical solutions to environmental problems," according to Darrell Sheppard, senior community outreach representative for SRP.
"That is an outgrowth of our corporate commitment to environmental stewardship and you put that together with our long-standing interest in supporting educators in our service territory and come up with Enviro-Tech."
This year's competition took place May 6-8, but each team spent hundreds of hours designing, constructing and testing their boats prior to the competition.
Science and math teacher Colleen Megowan led the team, which started with 12 members in September and finished with six members - five freshmen and one sophomore - at the race earlier this month. Students participating throughout the process were Hannah Wasserman, Paul Schaffert, Ben Borkan, Daniel Ference, Becca Rosenfield and Charles Sacks.
The project almost didn't happen for the Jess Schwartz team. When Megowan was given the calendar of work-shops, practices and races at the beginning of the year, she found that nearly everything was to be held on Saturdays. When she reported to SRP that the school wouldn't be able to participate, SRP quickly came back with accom-modations that ensured that the school would be able to take part.
All of the schools partici-pated in a hull-building workshop on a Saturday, but SRP sent a hull-building workshop to Jess Schwartz on a Friday. An additional technical seminar was held on a Saturday, and arrangements were made for the students from Jess Schwartz to travel to Tuba City to participate in the seminar on a weekday with the Tuba City team.
The final obstacle was the races themselves. An endur-ance race was held on Friday, May 7, with the sprints being scheduled for Saturday, May 8. SRP, however, allowed the Jess Schwartz team to con- duct their sprint races immediately following the endurance race on Friday.
"They really bent over backwards to make it possible for us to participate," says Megowan. "We were really appreciative."
However, Sheppard says it was Jess Schwartz who made the accommodations.
"We're grateful to them for giving us a heads-up that we need to be as accommodating as possible for anyone who wants to participate," he says.
The aspect of the program Sheppard enjoys the most is that academically oriented students get an opportunity to compete in a team competition.
"It's easy for a school to deify the athletes," he says. "The kids that do applied academics don't usually have that kind of exciting venue for the production of something competitive. One of the most fun things for me is watching a group of kids who may not be lauded for their athletic skills function in a team en-vironment."
And despite the hard work - which included designing the boat, decision-making, the building of the hull and fitting the boat with a drive train, electrical system and solar panels - the students say they are excited to participate again next year.
"I was joking with the teacher working on the project that we should be getting shop credit," says Schaffert, a sophomore, who says he mostly enjoyed the experience with wood-working and craftsmanship.
Wasserman, a freshman who was one of two students selected to drive the boat, hadn't had any prior building experience.
"I didn't know anything about boats or building. It just seemed like a fun idea," she says. "I liked building the hull and I liked driving (the boat)."
Sam Asaki, a junior at Desert Mountain High School, was participating for his second time in the Solar Spectacular for his high school team, which placed 11th in the race. He says he learned "how to keep a group moving forward and not get side-tracked and focus on the main task and not the little details that take up so much time."
But it wasn't only the stu-dents who enjoyed the project.
"I love hands-on projects," says Megowan. "I love the opportunity to actually get out there and do science because thinking and doing are very different. Things don't always work out the way you dream them up to."
Out of 17 teams, Jess Schwartz placed 10th - an accomplishment for a first-year team, according to Sheppard.
"I think our students came away thinking we did a really good job with what we had for a first-year team that didn't know much about what was possible," says Megowan. "Next year they've got some good ideas for how they're going to modify their boat."
Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.
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