America’s high schools have offered specialized automotive training for generations of technicians who then kept family cars and business vehicles humming on the highways. But, the evolution of transportation in the 21st Century is bringing a whole new kind of next generation automobile into service bays across the nation and a whole new set of challenges to men and women preparing to keep those cars on the road.
The National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium is on a mission to properly introduce these new advanced electric drive vehicles to the people who will service them right where automotive education begins in the nation’s high schools.
The NAFTC introduced its first high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum in its own backyard of Morgantown, WV when 15 West Virginia high school teachers from around the state participated in a week-long Advanced Electric Drive Vehicle Education Program training. The training is funded through a U.S. Department of Energy award and is geared to introduce high school CTE automotive students to advanced electric drive vehicles.
Teachers begin work with a motor generator in the NAFTC’s automotive lab. Credit: NAFTC.
“It’s extremely important that we begin this education at the high school level,” NAFTC Executive Director Al Ebron said. “There are a lot of opportunities for young people if we get them early – there are a lot of paths for them to choose from in the automotive and alternative fuel fields.”
The CTE course was also taught at the J. Harley Bonds Career Center in Greer, South Carolina. During this academic year, ten pilot programs of the curriculum will be introduced in high schools in West Virginia and South Carolina.
The course focuses on four types of electric drive vehicles: battery electric, plug-in electric, hybrid electric, and fuel-cell electric. After each section in the classroom, the instructors are taken into the NAFTC’s onsite automotive lab and conduct various hands-on activities with the equipment and vehicles.
Wheeling Park high school teacher Dwayne Bennett works inside of an NAFTC Prius. Credit: NAFTC.
Jeff Hardy, a teacher at the John D. Rockefeller IV Career Center in New Cumberland, WV, discussed his favorite aspects of the program.
“The instructor getting us out here in the shop and letting us take out the battery pack, dissemble one from a vehicle and taking these motor generators apart, all of the ‘hands-on’ stuff was very helpful,” Hardy explained. “We sound like our kids but that’s the part of the program they like, and it is a valuable way of learning.”
Wheeling Park teacher Dwayne Bennett described the sessions as a very valuable learning experience.
“The most exciting part for me was learning about the safety,” Bennett said. “Before this week I was fairly scared of them (electric cars) because I’d heard things like if you touch the wrong wire you can get electrocuted. After learning the safety features, I feel real comfortable that I can take my kids around these and show them different things. I’m not worried about it now.”
To further the secondary school educational opportunities, the NAFTC sent staff and equipment, including its in-house Toyota Prius and its hybrid electric vehicle training educator, known as HEVTE to South Carolina for another week of training. HEVTE is a fully functional Prius hybrid vehicle that is a cutaway exposing the intricacies of the vehicle and how it works.
“The thing that our instructor made interesting is he never told us any answers,” said the West Virginia Department of Education’s of Engineering and Technical Education Paul Lovett. “So, it led to the discovery – everything was discovery and everything was new to us.”
Teachers discuss modules of AED training in the classroom at NAFTC headquarters. Credit: NAFTC
Gene Coulson, the executive director of the Office of Career and Technical Innovation for West Virginia’s Department of Education, endorsed state teachers’ participation in the program and introduced the pilot program for the upcoming school year.
In South Carolina, the NAFTC worked with Benjamin T. Martin, an education associate for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program in the South Carolina Department of Education.
After this year’s pilot efforts, the NAFTC will make adjustments to the curriculum based upon its findings and participant recommendations, and then the high school program will become available nationwide.
NAFTC Pilot Schools for the 2012-2013 Academic Year.
Preston County High School, Preston WV.
Putnam Career and Technical Center, Eleanor, WV.
Mercer County Career and Technical Education Center, Princeton, WV.
Nicholas County Career/Technical Center, Craigsville, WV.
James Rumsey Technical Institute, Martinsburg, WV.
Anderson V Career Campus, Anderson, SC.
J Harley Bonds Career Center, Greer SC.
Pickens County Career and Technology Center, Liberty, SC.
Golden Strip Career Center, Greenville, SC.
H.B. Swofford Career Center, Inman, SC.