Tales from High School Hallways; Students' Solar Cup Preparations Have Triumphs, Tragedies

Business Wire, May 18, 2004

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004

Teams at 22 Southern California High Schools Put Final Touches on

Their Entries in Metropolitan Water District's May 21-23 Solar Boat

Competition at Lake Skinner

The team from Pomona Catholic High School built their entry in their school's main hallway, and members say their stickiest moment came when a defective hull sealant stayed wet for about two weeks.

Team members at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley call themselves the "Valley View Yacht Club," and have the motto "We Don't Go Where the Sun Don't Shine."

The defending champion team at Anaheim's Canyon High is anxious to reclaim its title in honor and memory of a team member who recently died of cancer.

These are just some of the stories from students at 22 Southern California public and private high schools scurrying to finish and fine-tune the single-seat, 16-foot solar-powered boats they've built to compete in the Solar Cup this weekend.

The three-day event, which helps promote stewardship of natural resources and alternative technologies through a series of endurance and sprint races, is being sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and its member cities and water agencies. The event will be held at the Lake Skinner reservoir near Temecula, and is open to the public at no charge.

Schools from Anaheim, Camarillo, Corona, Temecula, Glendora, Rancho Cucamonga, Pomona, Indio, Hacienda Heights, Moorpark, Murietta, La Puente, Menifee, Long Beach, San Dimas, San Jacinto, Moreno Valley, Hemet and Irvine are participating in the second-annual event -- the only one of its kind in California.

Teams from high school physics, engineering and shop classes have entered the competition, receiving a pre-cut hull kit and $3,000 from their local water agency with which to equip it. When assembled and equipped with solar panels, batteries, drivetrains, propellers and other paraphernalia, the single-seat boats weigh about 300 pounds. The weight of the skipper can't bring the total to more than 451 lbs.

This Friday, May 21, will begin with opening ceremonies at 10:30 a.m., followed by qualifying events. Saturday, May 22, the teams will remove their boats' solar panels and -- using the solar power stored in their batteries -- speed-race each other on a 200-meter course.

Sunday, the teams will install their solar panels and compete in 90-minute endurance races around a 2-kilometer course. The Saturday and Sunday events have been reversed this year, keeping the event competitive and suspenseful until the end.

Since December, student teams and their teacher/advisors have been assembling their boats and power/drive trains, attending Saturday workshops on carpentry and technical matters, and meeting deadlines for submitting blueprints and reports on their entries.

Along the way, there have been ecstatic high points and despondent nadirs for all of the teams, moments that will be laughingly told and retold around the Solar Cup campfires.

A team member at San Jacinto High School recalled that when one of the competition's inspectors came to check on their progress, "Erik wanted to show off by turning on the motor, and he blew it up. Everyone jumped. Then Erik started blaming it on the girls, and he still does. We are still fighting about it!"

At Charter Oak High School in Covina, the Solar Cup team's slogan is "Sink or Swim," and the 15 sophomores were afraid it would be "Sink and Swim" when they accidentally drove nails through the hull. They worked until 3 a.m. to repair the damage. (In fact, all skippers are required to pass a swimming test.)

At Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, the 16 freshmen, sophomores and juniors involved recall "the catastrophe when the boat fell (off its sawhorses), leaving a big hole right in the middle." But, working after school and on weekends, they got it patched and powered and are now ready to compete.

In addition to being technologically sharp, the teams also want to look sharp, and many will be wearing matching golf shirts or T-shirts in team/boat/school colors, as well as sporting custom paint jobs and detailing on their boats.

For instance, Murietta Valley High School's team was ecstatic to get a totally rad custom paint job for free from one of the artists on TV's popular "Monster Garage" program -- a cousin of one of the team members.

"Working with the kids and their advisors, and hearing their triumphs and tragedies, is a real roller coaster," says Julie Miller, a former public school teacher now on Metropolitan's education programs staff and the Solar Cup manager.

"But you can't beat it for rewards for the students and for Metropolitan and the other sponsoring water agencies," Miller says. "The kids learn so much about conserving natural resources, problem-solving and teamwork, and the water agencies have introduced them to concerns about managing non-renewable resources, drinking water quality and the sometimes competing uses of a reservoir for both drinking water and recreation."