After months of researching and many generous grants and donations, WMSI has finally purchased its first electric STEM Lab vehicle!!

It’s been a goal of ours for several years, ever since we moved into our beautiful new facilities at 23 Ammonoosuc Street in Littleton. With a whole host of green energy solutions, including tons of insulation, low water toilets, solar panels, smart battery electric storage, and EV chargers, our new location is incredibly energy efficient. Excited by this initial foray into decreasing our carbon footprint, we felt extremely motivated to continue making our operations more sustainable and help excite students about ways to help protect our ecosystems.

Our new EV analyses battery usage, calculating how much efficiency is gained or lost by factors like driving technique, cold weather, and mountainous terrain.

After much searching, our EV of choice finally arrived. We wasted no time in prepping it, charging it, and putting it through its paces. With a range of roughly 230 miles, we felt confident we could facilitate most of our normal programs with it, even with the range decrease that comes with cold conditions.

Prepping for the drive to Errol on a cold Friday morning

With much anticipation and a few nerves, I took the crunchy, cold early morning walk over to WMSI on Friday the 18th to load up the EV and take it’s longest drive yet - a full day program on simple machines over in Errol, NH - a 130 mile round trip!

My intended route - a beautiful drive through the north country!

Analysis of the drive to Errol, including battery usage. 16% was used to keep me warm!

As the picturesque north country zoomed by, I became more and more comfortable, until it felt just like any other drive (albeit a very quiet one!) Soon, I was zipping up route 16, soaking in the sparkling snowscape of the Androscoggin River valley. When I arrived at Errol Consolidated school, I had a little less than three quarters of my battery left (see above), but I decided to plug it into the wall outlet anyway as it was quite chilly, which can decrease battery life slightly.

Feeling invigorated by my sunshine-fueled journey, I bopped inside and set-up. Soon, the students and I were immersed in mechanisms - transitioning potentional energy to mechanical as we explored motors, gears, and pulleys.

We ended the day by answering one big question: can we build a pulley system with enough mechanical advantage to hoist our teachers on top of the playground set? Students excitedly ran outside to the snowy playground to start rigging up their 2:1 pulley systems. Even in cold conditions (it was 32 degrees out) students made great progress and soon the pulley systems were ready. Their principle and teacher, Mrs. Fluette, and I donned harnesses and clipped in. The students dug in their boots, pulled and, slowly but surely, our feet left the ground as we got hauled upwards. Success!

After a glorious day of exploring and playing with physics, it was time to take the 65 mile drive home. The students ran to pack up the ropes and pulleys and stick them in the trunk and I checked the charge on the car. Because it was plugged into a simple outlet and not a high voltage charger, it had only gained 20 miles of range, but I still had plenty of battery life to get home. After a good debrief and a discussion of what we’d explore in December, I jumped in the car and fired up the electrons for a smooth and snowy drive home. I arrived at WMSI with about half a “tank” of electricity left and plugged it into our level 2 (high voltage) charger so it would be ready for the next great adventure.