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| young Nigerians, Team Nigeria, the ‘Special Ones’, makers of the Eaglemobile 9JA BOLT solar car |
IN an effort to propel the genius in young Nigerians, Team Nigeria, the ‘Special Ones’, makers of the Eaglemobile 9JA BOLT solar car, billed to represent Africa at the 3,021km long World Solar Challenge, come October 2015 in Austria, have pledged unending support to the improvement of quality science education in schools.
The currently 18-man and expanding team, which has unveiled the 9JA BOLT at the Africa Design Medal & Festival, in Lagos, spoke to Chat212 Learning through team leader and creative director, Engineer Ebube George in an interview. Excerpts….
The currently 18-man and expanding team, which has unveiled the 9JA BOLT at the Africa Design Medal & Festival, in Lagos, spoke to Chat212 Learning through team leader and creative director, Engineer Ebube George in an interview. Excerpts….
By Tare Youdeowei
SCIENCE education in schools
One of the things we would do in the course of marketing is to tell sponsors that we hope to use the car and the knowledge of what we are doing in the course of this journey to educate students across schools.
By creating an attraction, maybe by inviting them over to see the production process or taking it to schools, the inkling would definitely be struck in them to want to try it out. It is just unfortunate that we do not have a culture of STEM- Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics that is impregnated into their thoughts at a very formative age. If we make that the crux of what building engineers is supposed to be, you would be surprised how many inventors we would produce.
Fear of Sciences
There isn’t anything so scary about mathematics and physics which are essential in science and eventual manufacturing. Physics is just the applied way the world works. Maths allows you know there are possibilities in a direction. Physics is just a clear application. For instance; weigh a man, calculate how much force would be needed to push a table to achieve a particular distance, that is physics. It is not scary, what is needed is to create some kind of finesse and actualisation in the mind of the child.
It is getting them to be more at home with numbers. It is not difficult for any child to achieve, you would be shocked that by the time you engage them in more practical ways of observing the world from a scientific point of view and also playing around with numbers, you can actually build a culture that would excite them and they would begin to explore it.
9ja BOLT
The difference between a solar car and the fossil fuel car is simply the taking out of the fossil fuel piece-engine and putting in a solar array for solar panels to trap as much sunlight per square millimetre that the batteries can store and with the MPPTs , create as much traction to push the tires and propel the car.
The vehicle will have regenerative brakes so that even when breaking energy is stored. The goal is to store energy from every single part of the vehicle as much as possible. It is an electric car as well as a solar car.
For the common man: Nigeria stands to gain technology transfer from this project. If we eventually do this, it will become a legend for our children. I grew up watching Young Farmers Club on television, it inspired me. When kids see this, imagine how they will be influenced in the next 10-15 years. Someone like Aregbesola has done Opon Imo that is laudable; imagine how much the children can Google, how much technology they would be exposed to.
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