Milking It for All It's Worth
Take a few small town boys and put them in the big city of Houston, Texas, and what do you get? For the Durand High School team, it's a new outlook on the future.
Durand High School students Bill Rieger, Joe Leonhard, Travis Gates and Austin Hoover prepare their car for inspection at Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2011 on Friday, April 15 in downtown Houston.
Joe Leonhard, Duran's student teacher, explains that his students never even considered college before Shell Eco-marathon. "Now a lot of the team members have an interest in going into the engineering field."
In fact, the same thing happened with three of Durand's 2010 team members, who are all now attending the University of Wisconsin. One student in particular, Ben Ulwelling, never thought college was in his future, but participating in Shell Eco-marathon made him think otherwise. Durand Faculty Advisor Bill Rieger explains, "Ben worked on this project with us for three years. With the help of a local barber and other businesses who provided money for food and drinks during the event, Shell Eco-marathon changed his life!"
So what was it about Shell Eco-marathon that got the students to shift gears? "These are farm boys who haven't been far from home. This event opens their eyes to what is possible. They see that they can compete against university kids," says Joe.
While there were dozens of Durand High School students involved in getting their vehicle to the big event, only a few of them travelled to Houston. Joe explains why: "Honestly, the ones who are here are the ones who didn't have to be home milking the cows."
These small town boys are enjoying their time at track. Bill says, "We are really glad to be here, and glad that Shell put this on."
Like many other Shell Eco-marathon teams, the Durand team experienced technical challenges with their vehicle. From front-end steering issues, to the steering wheel falling off, to pillow block bearings falling off, the team took it all in stride. "It's an experience for the kids to get away from school and see their hard work run on the road. They had a few issues, but their farm ingenuity to use scrap parts to get it running again kicked in."
Article off of shell's website about the SMV team at my school that I am on.
Take a few small town boys and put them in the big city of Houston, Texas, and what do you get? For the Durand High School team, it's a new outlook on the future.
Durand High School students Bill Rieger, Joe Leonhard, Travis Gates and Austin Hoover prepare their car for inspection at Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2011 on Friday, April 15 in downtown Houston.
Joe Leonhard, Duran's student teacher, explains that his students never even considered college before Shell Eco-marathon. "Now a lot of the team members have an interest in going into the engineering field."
In fact, the same thing happened with three of Durand's 2010 team members, who are all now attending the University of Wisconsin. One student in particular, Ben Ulwelling, never thought college was in his future, but participating in Shell Eco-marathon made him think otherwise. Durand Faculty Advisor Bill Rieger explains, "Ben worked on this project with us for three years. With the help of a local barber and other businesses who provided money for food and drinks during the event, Shell Eco-marathon changed his life!"
So what was it about Shell Eco-marathon that got the students to shift gears? "These are farm boys who haven't been far from home. This event opens their eyes to what is possible. They see that they can compete against university kids," says Joe.
While there were dozens of Durand High School students involved in getting their vehicle to the big event, only a few of them travelled to Houston. Joe explains why: "Honestly, the ones who are here are the ones who didn't have to be home milking the cows."
These small town boys are enjoying their time at track. Bill says, "We are really glad to be here, and glad that Shell put this on."
Like many other Shell Eco-marathon teams, the Durand team experienced technical challenges with their vehicle. From front-end steering issues, to the steering wheel falling off, to pillow block bearings falling off, the team took it all in stride. "It's an experience for the kids to get away from school and see their hard work run on the road. They had a few issues, but their farm ingenuity to use scrap parts to get it running again kicked in."
Article off of shell's website about the SMV team at my school that I am on.
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