This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
April 30, 2005
Oregon and California Students Win Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge
High school students from Portland, Oregon, and San Jose, California, took top honors on April 30th at the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge, part of DOE's National Science Bowl competition. The team from the Woodrow Wilson High School of Portland took first place in the Grand Prix speed race, and the team from the Harker School of San Jose won the "King of the Hill" award by conquering a 20-degree incline with their hydrogen-powered model car. The two first-place teams will each receive $1,750 for their schools' science departments. The Model Car Challenge is one of several hands-on activities in which the 63 National Science Bowl teams took part on April 30th. Eighteen teams, selected by lottery, used model car kit components provided by General Motors Corporation to design and build hydrogen-powered race cars measuring at most one foot wide by two feet long. See the DOE press release.
While West Coast schools dominated the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge, on May 2nd an East Coast school won the main event: the 2005 National Science Bowl championship. The team from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, located in Alexandria, Virginia, earned first place for the fourth consecutive year. Clinching the top spot by answering a question about mathematician Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, the team earned its fourth trophy as well as a research trip to Alaska, three computer-based laboratories, and $1,000 for its school's science department. See the DOE press release.
DOE created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage high school students to excel in math and science and to pursue careers in these fields. The 63 National Science Bowl teams had to first win regional competitions before congregating in Washington, D.C., for this weekend's competition. See the National Science Bowl Web site.
