Chelsea ColleyDozens of schools across the Commonwealth want to join a STEM-based program run by the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER).
The GEN-EV program teaches students engineering and team-based skills while they work on an exciting project: designing, building and racing an electric car.
“When I make a presentation on this program, one of my first questions to the audience is, ‘How many of you know a fourth grader that can look at a wiring diagram and wire a car?’ Unless you know some kid in this program, nobody knows one,” said Shiela Medina, CAER’s assistant director for policy and engagement, who is also the GEN-EV program director. “I now know 200 kids that can do that in fourth and fifth grade. That is amazing.”
Medina has roughly 50 schools, mostly middle and high schools, interested in joining the program, which means she needs $500,000 for electric car kits.
“I am overwhelmed with schools. CAER is launching a development program to be able to raise money just to buy cars. Right now, I have about 48 schools or school systems that are waiting for cars,” said Medina.
The GEN-EV program is run in partnership with Greenpower USA, the company that makes the car kits and curriculum, and supported by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.
The STEM education program is primarily in elementary schools for now, with more than a dozen schools already participating. It starts with fourth graders and other levels continue through middle and high school. The program is generally run as an afterschool club made up of 10 to 15 students spending a semester building the car.
“They learn physics concepts. They learn about transportation, different types of fuels in transportation, and those sorts of things,” said Medina. “There is a team commitment form. Students have to be there every time, keep their grades up and have good behavior.
“I had one principal tell me, ‘This is a sport disguised as a STEM education program.’”
