Engaging Middle and High School Students in Learning STEM through Electric Vehicles.

Transportation affects everyone and it is a topic that we can all relate to in our daily lives. The Sustainable Transportation Education Program (STEP) at the Future Renewable Electric Energy and Delivery Management (FREEDM) Systems Center at North Carolina State University is in the eighth year of an electric vehicle program for middle and high school students. The STEP program's purpose is to prepare middle and high school students to become informed and engaged in learning about the electrification of transportation, battery technologies and storage, and standards aligned with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The STEP program provides teacher training and curricula on Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs), Smart Grid, and careers in science, engineering, and technology as it relates to the automotive and the supporting infrastructure. The program has had an impact on over 1,500 students and teachers in the respective state since its inception. STEP's curriculum is a STEM based program that includes problem-solving, critical thinking and inquiry-based learning with relevance to real world issues. STEP includes a hands-on component, which includes a 1/10 scale model PEV as students learn about battery technologies, powertrain, chassis design and other related topics. The STEP competition gives students a relevant learning experience through an applied approach (theory-to-practice) with sustainable transportation. The program parallels the engineering challenge of designing plug-in electric vehicles on a 1/10 scale. Students are challenged to design efficient battery powered vehicles and solar charging station to recharge the vehicle's batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]