H2AC Program


Students in H2AC will spend a semester tackling topics in renewable energy and automotive engineering. The content can be divided into the following units, which each culminate with a product that helps put the students one more step closer to competing on race day.

This syllabus assumes approximately 4 hours of activities per week.  Please adjust the schedule if you have more or less time per week to devote to the project.

WEEKS 1-2
Part I: Defining the Problem
unit1-renewable-energy-lab-experiments

How is Earth’s climate changing? What evidence do we have for it? And what kinds of things can we do to combat it? Students will use hands-on lab activities and online resources to explore the argument for a warming planet, discuss the pros and cons of various renewable energy technologies, and determine the various solutions available for providing a mobile source of energy for transportation.

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WEEKS 3-9
Part II: Building a Solution
Building your Solution

What are the necessary components of a car? How do the different systems of a car work together to keep the car functioning? What shape would be most advantageous for a car’s body? Students will construct a working fuel cell- and battery-powered RC car, either working from a kit or designing and building from scratch. They will design and build a body to encase their car, using 3D modeling software from Autodesk to test their designs in virtual wind tunnels and print their body to scale.

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Weeks 10-15
Part III: Testing Your Solution
Testing your solution

What forces do we need to consider when driving the car? How should its steering sensitivity, ground clearance, rear axle differential, and other parameters be adjusted for peak performance? Students will experiment with their car, improving their own driving skills while testing the limits of the car’s performance. With the cars and drivers finely tuned, the students and their creations are ready to face off in a six-hour endurance race.

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Now that you’ve seen what students accomplish during H2AC, click here to find out how H2AC affects students who participate. Or click below to apply for your school now.

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