A group of staff met daily in department cluster teams, including Transportation (comprising automotive and metals); Communications (with computers and graphics); Construction (with contracting, carpentry, electrical, and drafting); and Culinary (which was in a category by itself). The intent was to design a project for each cluster which would involve team teaching through a multidisciplinary approach and which would incorporate AAI. One difficulty was that the only academic instructor available for the daily meetings that year was a freshman humanities instructor who volunteered to meet with all the clusters on a rotating basis and would provide technical assistance in the humanities area. (It wasn't until 1993-1994 that Rindge was able to offer any tenth-grade academic courses in-house.)
To jump-start the process, teachers tried to generate ideas, asking a few basic questions such as description of project, length of time, areas involved, advantages, and possible drawbacks. Basic project guidelines were established. Projects needed to be useful, fulfill a real community need, and hold the interest of staff and students. In the transportation cluster, the idea of an electric vehicle, as in a small go-cart or utility type cart, evolved. At that time, if any one had mentioned high school kids building a full-sized electric passenger vehicle, they would have been laughed at.
Other clusters tossed around various ideas and decided to join in on the Electric Vehicle Project. This helped push the thinking and started discussions about how to build a full-sized electric vehicle. Keeping within the basic project guidelines, we decided to build a practical vehicle that would demonstrate the usefulness of electric vehicles. After researching the feasibility of this idea, students determined that converting a gasoline powered vehicle instead of building one from the ground up was our best option.
The further they researched, the more interesting the project became. Apparently, a whole subculture of electric vehicle enthusiasts surfaced during the Carter administration when research on alternative means of transportation was fueled by rising oil prices, dependence on foreign oil, oil embargoes, and Americans' distaste for the Iran hostage situation. This subculture was designing and building electric vehicles in the hopes of a new emerging industry. When Reagan took office, the survivors of this subculture moved underground, actually into their basements and home garages. What all this meant to Rindge was that there was a substantial group of people with a wealth of information ready to share. This is when the project truly became a reality.
The plan for 1992-1993 was to create an electric vehicle industry within Rindge. Each technical area would be contributing throughout the year. Staff brainstormed about different ways that technical areas could be involved and came up with a truly beautiful time line which clearly defined the who, what, and when.
September 1992 rolled around and it was time to implement. Students began with a process by which they had to apply to each technical area. Each student had to interview with the teacher and show his or her portfolio from CityWorks. Students were encouraged to look at the skills they had acquired both in school and out and were asked to describe how they could contribute to the team's work in that area. The hope in doing this was to garner student investment by giving them responsibility and drawing off of their skills and interests. It also provided a direct link with their experience in the freshman CityWorks program by providing them the opportunity to apply what they had learned in this new situation.
From there, the teachers wanted students to experience the need for electric vehicles. To start, they had students do a quick and dirty research project that focused on three skills: (1) library, (2) observation, and (3) interviewing. All of the students researched environmental disasters related to the technical areas they were in at that time. From that research, they had to demonstrate how technology had been used to correct the problem and what changes in technology had come from the disaster. Teachers knew students' interest in mayhem would hold their interest for this project. They wanted students to understand technology and how it can be used as an instrument of change. The grand scheme was to have them use technology simultaneously to improve the air quality and to help expand an industry full of new employment opportunities.
From the research on disasters and technology, the program then moved in to look more specifically at the need for electric vehicles. A simple exercise illustrated the polluting power of gasoline-powered vehicles: Teachers placed a white sock over the exhaust pipe of a car. It did not stay white. Next, students gained a sense of how many cars were having that effect by calling the registry of motor vehicles and requesting the number of cars registered in Massachusetts and in Cambridge. (One of the teachers had called the registry first to pave the way.)
As the year progressed, a number of problems surfaced. Students not directly involved in construction of the vehicle felt their work was not real or important. The electric vehicle was taking longer than anticipated, and student interest was diminishing without an actual completed vehicle as the central focus. Some teachers needed a structured curriculum, and without a humanities instructor involved, the technical teachers became frustrated wrestling with students' writing skills.
Moreover, most students had found a comfort zone and were not choosing to rotate at the end of each quarter. Staff chose not to force them to change because that most likely would just have resulted in disinterested students not learning anything and disrupting the class--one of the problems with the old exploratory program. Consequently, many students saw only one technical area, and they did not gain any sense of how skills in different aspects of industry (such as planning and finance) could transfer to other industries. A skill may be "transferable" in theory, but students need to use it in multiple contexts to realize that and to gain the ability to transfer and adapt their skills to new applications.
Toward the end of the year, the staff stepped back and took a critical look at the Electric Vehicle Project, assessing whether and how the tenth grade should change. They listed everything worth saving: school-based enterprise or community service; inter-disciplinary, project-based curriculum; portfolio assessment; and research projects. Then they listed items that needed to improve dramatically: the inclusion of labor issues; maintaining staff and student interest; teaching of communication skills; aiding students in processing what they have learned; academic instructor involvement; time constraints; and student rotation through technical areas.
Despite the difficulties, the first electric vehicle was completed. Staff decided that, although the electric vehicle project was not ideal for the tenth grade, it was still a great learning opportunity. Consequently, the Electric Vehicle Project born in the sophomore program is now a school-based enterprise within the Industrial Technology and Engineering career path, and junior and senior students continue to convert vehicles and study the industry. Harvard University is interested in converting some of its vehicles and setting up an internship, with students doing the work and maintaining the vehicles at Harvard. The enterprise targets nonprofit entities as customers, and other interested parties are the public works and traffic departments from the city of Cambridge. The first vehicle is now used as a demo model and test platform.