West Philly High School X-Prize Team
 

The West Philly High School X-Prize team on Frontline:

Fast Times at West Philly High | FRONTLINE | PBS

They tried as hard as anybody, and that's what counts.

(This was the week that I was at the X-Prize as a guest member of the Edison2 team. Thanks Oliver -- it was an amazing time.)

Just watched it, thinking I might use it in a seminar on culture and learning. Very impressive educator, but the film disappointed me a little, as a film. It's too short, and it matters because we learned too little about the car and about the teacher's methods. Still, what an amazing teacher. What a remarkable set of cars.

...as an ex-educator, I, too, was impressed by his (teacher) skills and motivation of students, especially the final statement that 90% of his students were accepted to college! Impressive numbers.

disapointed
 

I'm not sure,and I've never done it,as I have no computer,but PBS.ORG offers pod casts of it's programs and often,there is additional material which didn't make it onto the show.Might check it out.

It was short, and yes they do have some additional material online on the page I linked to. I met a few of these students, and spoke with a few of the teachers. They worked very hard and they were having a blast there at the Michigan Speedway.

I looked at some of the added video when I finished the film, but I was still left hoping for something meatier. I just looked again now, at the "where-are-they-now" teacher piece, and found a link to his charter school project, the "Sustainability Workshop." The column and the two videos, especially the shorter one on top, are exactly the kind of thing I had hoped would be included more into the film itself. I'll be able to use this easily. What he is saying with verve and reasonability is well-known in education circles, though most of the political structure and some of the teacherate won't or can't accept.

[EDIT: I noticed something about their "mainstream" competition car. They were knocked-out in the semi-final because they needed to hit 67mpg and only reached 65.1 mpg. But the Ford Focus body had no aeromods. An airdam, grillblock, wheel skirts, and side skirts were not permissible? Tires pumped high? With those and maybe a passenger side mirror delete they should have been able to gain the needed 1.9 mpg easily, and therefore stayed into the final round, by which time they might have worked out the technical problems they discovered with their charging system.]

Thanks again!

They were allowed to anything that could be incorporated in a "production" vehicle. They didn't work on aerodynamics that much -- they were concentrating on the drivetrain. They were limping along on weak battery pack, and the Harley engine is hardly a choice based on efficiency. My impression is that they chose it because it is American made and "cool".