Cardinal Gibbons Catholic (CGC) High School is our defending third place team from 2015’s Florida H2AC. Despite late race malfunctions, Alpha Team was able to pull it together for a spot of the podium.
This year CGC has setup a team captain to recruit new members for H2AC and bring more hands-on STEM projects to their school.
Here’s how STEM Coach Thomas Herrmann feels about how H2AC has impacted his students.
Why do you as a teacher want to volunteer your time to coach your team?
I believe that Hydrogen cells are one of the many new technologies that are the way of the future and getting my students introduced to them will give them real world experience in the field of STEM.
How will participating in this competition benefit your students’ familiarity with renewable energy & their opinions on further education and careers opportunities in STEM related fields?
It will stimulate their interest in the subject by allowing them to gain hands on experience and it will teach them technical problem solving skills in an engineering environment.
How did H2AC increase you and your team’s familiarity with renewable energy?
The video presentation as well as the poster board from last year taught my students that engineering is not all about math and building but about research into the origins of technology and its impact in our world.
After H2AC, were your students more comfortable about topics pertaining to STEM?
Yes, as a matter of fact my students who competed in last years competition were much more comfortable with on the fly problem solving as they had to make many adjustments to their vehicle during the race.
But STEM Coach Thomas Herrmann and his team can’t do this alone, and if this is a goal that you find worthwhile, maybe you can help.