Monongalia County Technical Education Center
Morgantown, West Virginia
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Monongalia County Technical Education Center Morgantown, West Virginia |
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The Electric Vehicle (EV) Challenge has become an integral part of MTEC's curriculum. MTEC's students and staff are working as a team to promote the use of EVs. During our first year of competition in Raleigh, North Carolina, our truck finished in ninth place. The second year, the MTEC team was awarded sixth place for the car and ninth place for the truck. In 2005, the car placed second overall, and the truck placed third overall. Excitement continues to build as we prepare for the 2006 competition. The EV Challenge program started in 1993 with three schools competing nationwide. Now there are over thirty schools involved. This is a year-long project that promotes the knowledge of electric vehicles and involves the school and community in many ways. Some components of the competition are: rebuilding and designing certain aspects of the actual vehicle, web-page design, public speaking, and preparing pamphlets to promote EVs. Our car and truck have been showcased at many community events. Former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise hosted an Odyssey Day in conjunction with the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium in Charleston and surprised MTEC's representatives by agreeing to drive our truck. The students working on this project learn about meeting deadlines, designing portions of a project while staying focused on the end results, and participate as members of a diverse team. Everyone participating is developing a great deal of pride in our project. MTEC's involvement in the national EV Challenge has been featured in several publications including, the November 2005's edition of Tomorrow's Technician magazine. The two-page article was titled "Electric Vehicle Challenge Get Students Geared Up." Our EV Challenge program and successes have also been published in several state and local newspapers including The Dominion Post, Morgantown, WV; The Intelligencer/Wheeling News Register, Wheeling, WV; The Journal, Martinsburg, WV; The Exponent Telegram, Clarksburg, WV. Information about our electric vehicles was presented on WBOY-TV, Channel 12, a North Central WV television station. MTEC's electric car and truck have been included in Monongalia County Schools' newsletters: MTEC Moments, Monongalia Monitor, and The Quarter's Worth. Our electric car and truck have been driven in numerous local parades and showcased at many street fairs within our community.
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