For release: Dec. 7, 2012
News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU Alternative
Fuels class contact: Dr. Cliff Ricketts, 615-308-7605 (cell) or Cliff.Ricketts@mtsu.edu
Five teams using different energy sources in research project
MURFREESBORO — Take
22 multi-talented MTSU students with a zest for engineering or environmental
science and technology, tackling challenges and a penchant for speed, noise,
getting their hands dirty and experiencing the highs and lows of a research
project.
Factor in five different alternative fuels for five teams.
Allow each team a $400 budget, with the funds provided by a Tractor Supply
Company grant.
Tell them to make a go-kart run on the alternative fuel the
team has chosen.
Then inform them it counts as one-fourth of their grade, and
there’s the challenge of a competition from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, at a
campus site to be determined.
What you have is longtime MTSU professor and alternative
fuels expert Dr. Cliff Ricketts sending them on a fall semester-long quest for
success and maybe even outdo the other guy or gal.
The students are utilizing hydrogen, ethanol, propane, solar
electric and hydrogen peroxide as the alternative fuels making their go-karts
go.
“It’ll be a blast to drive and it’s either all or nothing,”
said Richard Hanson, a junior from Murfreesboro, talking about his team’s light
blue go-kart being powered by hydrogen. Hanson, a New Hampshire native,
military veteran and nontraditional student, knows motors and carburetors.
“Some (students) are more mechanically inclined and depends
on what the task is,” said Chris Coddington, a senior agribusiness student
scheduled to graduate in fall 2013. His four-member team is using ethanol for
an MTSU blue-colored go-kart.
“We’ve had our ups and downs,” Coddington added. “No matter
how prepared you are you’re always missing parts or pieces to finish the
project.”
Ricketts gives this type of education a number of labels:
hands-on, learning by doing, experiential learning and, for the academia
minded, inquiry-based learning.
“EXL is what we’re doing here,” he said of experiential
learning. “This course is the epitome of EXL.”
Inside the shop area called the Vocational Agriculture
Center on Lightning Way, Ricketts’ brown eyes sparkle as he glances in the
direction of the propane-fueled go-kart.
“I’m glad they did that, because I’ve never had a propane
vehicle before (in research as an alternative fuel),” he said of the team led
by Jared Berke, a senior agribusiness major and engineering technology minor
from Fayetteville, Tenn.
Berke, a nontraditional student, recently had to replace a
wheel bearing on his team’s go-kart. He calls the total experience “fun and
enjoyable.”
“To have something we do rather than read it in a book,” he
said. “A little hands-on experience goes a lot further than reading something
about it.”
“College students today have good head knowledge,” said
Ricketts, who admits that this is only the second time he has taught an
alternative fuels class. “They don’t have manual dexterity skills to do stuff.”
Ricketts said cognitive (book smart), effective (personality
smart) and psychomotor learning (manual dexterity) are types of knowledge
students can exhibit.
“Manual dexterity is the ability to build something and
working with your hands,” he said. “Hands-on is the experience that’ll give
them confidence for jobs.”
Brennen Kirby, a junior who is not a class member, donated
an old golf cart that had been stored in a barn. The solar electric team has
turned it into a go-kart.
Senior Catherine McKee of Huntsville, Ala., one of two young
women in the class, said all four team members have shared responsibilities.
“We took apart everything on the golf cart,” McKee said. “We
have new batteries to connect to the motor and the solar panels will charge the
batteries.”
The team added new tires on the go-kart and placed the
batteries in a series (side-by-side), allowing the three 12-volt deep-cycle
batteries to run the 36-volt go-kart, said Aras Alexander, a junior
environmental science technology major from Houston, Texas.
The team must determine how and where to install three solar
panels to the vehicle before the Dec. 13 competition.
So far, all five teams’ go-karts have started and been
driven around campus. The teams will continue to tweak their vehicles as they
anticipate race day.
###
Photo captions
Chris Morefield.jpg
MTSU senior and
December degree candidate Chris Morefield of Franklin, Tenn., works on the
steering mechanism for his team’s go-kart. (Photos by MTSU News and Media
Relations)
Jared Berke.jpg
Jared Berke, an MTSU
senior from Fayetteville, Tenn., replaces the wheel bearings on his team’s
go-kart. (Photo by MTSU News and Media Relations)
Ryan Skelley.jpg
Taking his team’s
propane-powered go-kart for a spin on Lightning Way is MTSU senior Ryan Skelley
of Murfreesboro. (Photo by MTSU News and Media Relations)
Solar paint job.jpg
Jordan Warren, left,
Aras Alexander, Sean Burk and Catherine McKee paint their solar electric
alternative fuel golf cart. All are environmental science and technology majors
and all are seniors except Burk, who is a junior. (Photo by MTSU News and Media
Relations)
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MTSU news any time, visit www.MTSUNews.com.
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