Kids build green energy cars

Filed in Economy | Education | Kids | Sustainability

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – About 200 middle school students from across New Mexico competed in an annual green car building competition, using only hydrogen fuel cells and electric motors.

The Albuquerque Public School district hosted the 5th annual Schools Teaching About Resource Sustainability, or STARS, program at Wilson Middle School to teach the importance of finding sustainable sources of energy and reducing society’s dependence on oil.

More than 30 student teams built model cars using materials, such as styrofoam, wood, CDs and legos.

The technology is fairly simple, according to APS energy conservation coordinator Ron Rioux. A chemical reaction separates hydrogen from oxygen in water. The hydrogen then produces electricity to fuel the car.

“If we use the hydrogen, instead of pollution coming from our mufflers, it’s going to be water vapor which is just going to continue the water cycle,” said Mario Martinez, sixth grader at James H. Rodriguez Elementary School in Espanola.

With the increasing cost of gas, experts think hydrogen-fueled cars are the way to go.

“It’s reality right now,” said Rioux.

Major car companies are currently developing their hydrogen powered models, but these green-energy cars don’t come cheap. Toyota expects to release its model by 2015, priced around $50,000.

“You’re running on distilled water and solar panels that are producing the electricity, so how much is it over the life of the car is what you have to look at,” said Rioux. “It’s a matter of cost and making that cost come down.”

The entire program lasted a few weeks and cost about $1,500. PNM, Sandia Labs and Los Alamos Labs foot the bill for the projects.

Article source: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/education/kids-build-green-energy-cars

Have you seen this man?

Filed in Economy | Efficiency | Energy | Healthcare | International Politics | Kids | Politics | Science | Social | Sustainability | Technology

National Geographic’s most typical person

National Geographic’s year long series on world population highlights the differences and similarities of the Earth’s population as we reach 7 billion people in 2011.

Vote YES for 3A. Vote YES for Our Children.

Filed in Colorado | Education | Kids

Support K-12 Education in Boulder Valley

Boulder Valley School District needs your help in passing Ballot Measure 3A.  The Colorado Legislature cut over $260 million from education in their latest budget.  The impact for BVSD during the 2011-2012 school year is estimated to be a reduction of $11.7 million when compared to the 2009-2010 school year. The 2010-2011 budgets will come out somewhere in between these two, thanks to one time funding from Federal emergency funds and reductions in the administrative costs to run the district.

Colorado continues to fund education at levels approaching the lowest in the nation.   Before the latest recession, in 2007, Colorado spent $1,500 per student below the national average and ranked 40th in the nation in public funding for K-12.   Today, spending is even less, with Colorado falling to 42nd in public funding for K-12.  With economists predicting Colorado’s budget shortfalls to continue, we are looking to go even lower. 42nd and falling!  According to the Denver Post, in 2007 Colorado ranked 49th and was stingier than all but Florida, spending only $34.35 of every $1,000 in personal income to educate our children.  This compares to a national average of $43.02. We should do better.

Last spring, each school in the BVSD gathered administrators, educators and parents together to deal with the budget shortfall.  Likely, many of you attended one or more of these meetings.  If you did, you may have seen what we saw in our budget meetings.  There were a few things that could be cut and would save a few dollars.  Some of these may have been budgeted but unspent in the latest budget or even over the past few years.  Others were nice to have programs and activities that would not really be missed.  But after 2, 3, 4% in cuts, reductions impacted the classroom and the learning experience.   We’ve already made the easy, painless cuts and any additional cuts will be to our kids’ educations.  We should do better.

What has BVSD done to address this budget issue?  The central district administrative expenses were cut by 13.5% while school budgets were cut by 3.75%.  Some of this 3.75% was reinstated using the federal emergency funds mentioned earlier.  Some people will argue more can be done to cut the district’s overhead and if they are correct, it should be done.  However, hoping for or even getting additional cuts in overhead are not going to be enough to fix the problem.

This mill levy would be used in three primary areas.  The first is to restore the classroom funding reduction from the state.  $12 million would be allocated to replace funds lost from the state.  Superintendent King has vowed none of this money would be used to replace central administrative spending cuts.  $5.5 million would be used for teacher and staff compensation to hire and retain the best teachers in the region.  $5 million will be invested in early childhood education programs.

You can read more about the ballot measure, why we need it, what it does and find ways to help support its passage at Vote Children First.

Read the text of ballot measure 3A and see it as it appears on the Boulder County ballot – go to page 3.

Endorsements:

Investing in the economy through education By Helayne Jones and David Harwood

Impact on Education

The Community Foundation of Boulder County

Boulder Chamber of Commerce

Dennis Berry’s Letter to the Camera’s Editor

Jane McConnell’s Letter to the Camera’s Editor

Helping Kids Connect with their Community

Filed in Colorado | Education | Kids

Interested in helping kids connect with their community? Want children to be exposed to giving back at an early age? Desire for middle school kids to appreciate the environment. Then please consider a financial contribution to Colorado Youth Program. This Boulder County organization provides a free after school program, Adventure Club, engaging middle school children in community service projects at the Humane Society, Community Food Shares, and cleaning up the Boulder Creek and other hiking trails.

Colorado Youth Program also offers a ten day summer camp in the Mountains near Ward focused on environmental education. Most campers would not be able to enjoy a summer camp experience with the generous scholarships made available by contributors. Check out this great group.

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Pinewood Derby Week

Filed in Kids | Scouting

This is Pinewood Derby Week for Pack 377 and my first derby since the early ’70s. The wheels are wider and the block of wood does not have a cockpit pre-cut but the rest seems to be the same. My first car I built with my dad a little more than a year before he died. It is one of the few scouting memories of him I retain and building this year’s car collection has brought some fond memories forward.

Today, we painted the cars in preparation for Wednesday’s weigh-in and Friday’s Derby. We cut them Thanksgiving week and sanded them in early December. Since then we’ve been waiting for some warmer weather so we could finish them in the garage. Yesterday, we decided we would have to risk the kitchen and hope the enamel paint did not get applied to anything that mattered. Other than hands and pajamas, only a few spots on the chairs have been painted so far. Oh, and the cars. It seems Lightening McQueen is this year’s favorite model as we have two red speedsters to go along with a black caddy and a blue and orange rocket.

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