When you ask a Kindergartner to design a hybrid vehicle, you get a much different response than from asking a Michigan Tech student. Dr. John Beard, advisor to the Michigan Tech EcoCAR team, visited Mrs. Beard's Kindergarten class at South Range Elementary School in Adams Township to gain a fresh perspective on new designs for the EcoCAR Challenge.Dr. Beard read "If I Built A Car" by Chris Can Dusen to the class of 22 students. The class was silent as the listened intently to the limitless possibilities of designing your own vehicle. They passed around models of a racecar, ambulance, fire truck, SUV, hybrids, and cars. When Dr. Beard asked the class, "What do you want on your car?" all 22 students tried to talk at once.
The students then had the opportunity to draw what their vehicles would look like. There were a wide variety of ideas, including machine guns, hats, leaves, swimming pools, candy dispensers, wings, and fires. Along with the drawings, the students wrote short descriptions of their vehicles and shared them with the class. To conclude the visit, Dr. Beard described how the EcoCAR team was working to build a vehicle that they designed, and that some day the Kindergarten students would be able to do the same.
Dr. Beard commented, "Teaching non-linear ordinary differential equations is much easier than teaching five-year-olds, especially when you ask 'any questions?' or 'what do you want to see on your car?'"
