MILWAUKEE NEWS

Assignment puts spark into high

school studies
Student teams adapt bicycles to recharge electronic devices

Greendale High School seniors Vince Dodulik (foreground, left) and Marques Surita power up a cell
phone using bicycle pedal power. Behind them are classmates Kevin Walsh and Nick Lichtenwalner.
Credit: Michael Sears

By Becky Vevea of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 30, 2010

Greendale - Imagine a long bike ride along Lake Michigan without

having your iPod battery die. Or maybe you need to charge your phone
while you're biking to work.

While some major companies, such as Motorola and Nokia, make cell
phone-specific bike chargers, students at Greendale High School may
have a better solution.
The school's engineering students showed off their latest inventions
during class Tuesday, most of which were recycled bicycles with the
ability to charge any type of electronic gadget.

The assignment challenged students to come up with their own way to

convert mechanical energy from a recycled bicycle into electrical
energy to power an iPod, cell phone or GPS, said their teacher, Terri
Tessmann, who formerly worked as a biomedical engineer. The
students had the option of using an alternative energy source to power
the bike, Tessmann said.

Seniors Nick Lichtenwalner, 18, and Kevin Walsh, 17, built a system
that connected the bike's chain to a cog that spun a generator to produce
electricity. By using a small capacitor, they were able to maintain a
steady energy flow rather that one that fluctuates with the speed of the
bike, which could burn out the iPod's battery. Also, by using a capacitor
with a USB port, they were able to easily use the iPod's regular
charging cord.

Their classmates, Marques Surita, 17, and Vince Dodulik, 18, ran into a
few more bumps along the way as they came up with a system to
charge a cell phone or GPS. Having discovered their classmates' use of
a capacitor just one week before the project was due, it was too late to
adjust. The two said they actually "torched" a couple phones because
they had problems keeping the energy flow steady.

Even so, Dodulik hopped on the bike, started pedaling and within a few
moments had his cell phone booted up.

Both Surita and Dodulik say they plan to major in some kind of
engineering in college and see an element of entrepreneurship in their
future.

"If we had more time, materials and money, we could totally sell this,"
Surita said, especially because their invention utilized a car lighter jack
- a universal outlet for many popular gadgets.
 The students are part of the school's Project Lead the Way program,
which focuses on the practical application of science and engineering
principles through a project-based curriculum taken throughout a four-
year high school sequence.

"Everything is very hands-on, and that's the way that kids learn,"
Tessmann said of the program.

This particular project was one of several learning projects that lead up
to their capstone project, which is presented to professionals in the
industry and other community members.

Tessmann said she wanted to use this project to get students prepared
for problems and time constraints they might run into with the final
project, but ended up being "blown away" by the design and
implementation of the projects.

"They knocked my socks off from an engineering standpoint,"

Tessmann said.

 
 
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