Student Power Fuels School Buses
Making biodiesel in a high school lab.
What if school buses could run on fuel made by students? It’s happening on a small scale at East Burke High School in Connelly Springs, NC.
Science teacher Bob Smith is showing students how to turn used cooking oil from a local restaurant into biodiesel fuel for use in school buses. In the process, his students learn about chemistry, environmental science and even public speaking (the school’s biodiesel program, after all, is attracting local and national media attention).
“We wanted to do something hands on in the lab that would utilize classroom lessons with a real world problem,” Smith said. The instuctor also hopes the biodiesel project will encourage some of his students to pursue careers in science and engineering.
“We’re using chemistry in everyday life,” said Nou Yang, a high school senior who is considering a career pediatric medicine. “Cooking is chemistry. We’re just not baking a cake, it’s about molecules reacting to each other.”
The same goes for driving.
The process of refining vegetable oil into an odorless fuel takes about 6 to 7 hours of work in the lab followed by an overnight waiting period to allow the product to settle.
doneAt the conclusion, students load the fuel into a school bus and watch their work in action. Click here to see the live demonstration they did for FOX News Channel.
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Tags: alternative fuel, biodiesel, Connelly Springs, East Burke High School
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Jonathan Serrie is an Atlanta-based correspondent for FNC. He was
stationed in Macedonia during Operation Allied Force and in Uzbekistan
during Operation Enduring Freedom. 
It takes six to seven hours to refine it. Probably only enough for one school bus, depending on how much they are refining. Pretty cool, but probably not worthwhile.
Great job Mr Smith!
THIS IS MY SCHOOL THATS DOING THIS AND USUSALLY POPLE DONT EVEN KNOW WHERE BURKE CO. IS SO BEING ON THE FOX NEWS AND BEING RECOGNIZED BY OTHER PEOPLE IS REALLY COOL! GOOD JOB YOU GUYS!
How amazing. I kind of wish I had gone to THAT high school.
http://www.theprettyproject.com
[...] in the way. (In fact, at some schools, the faculty members are actually encouraging the students to get involved with biodiesel production. WEIRD.) Dattco Bus… minus the giant STAGS on the [...]
Hopefully they are also learning the 4 R’s
readin’, wrtin’, ‘rthmetic & RESPONSIBILITY, all of which seem to be severly lacking in our current liberal soceity.
You should be very proud of yourselves that you’re making such great strides before even getting to college. I bet this story will have more of an impact than you know!
( see : http://jenclinton.wordpress.com )
this is the school i go to nd this is awesome
I went to this high school and graduated back in 2007. I am so proud that my old high school is finally getting the attention it deserves for doing marvelous things. Im very proud of all the students involved in this project. This should help cut cost for the county for the gas it takes to fuel the buses. Great minds can come from a small county in the middle of nowhere.
But can they bake a cake with diesel?
Dig the chemistry helmets!
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Burning Fossil fuels reportedly contributes to global warming. Burning of vegetable oils merely returns to the atmosphere carbon dioxide that was already present. Therefore, the burning of vegetable oils does not increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and secondly, the use of biodiesel increases mileage by ten to fifteen percent.
The most important thing about this project is that it is hands-on, relavent, real world open-ended learning for the students. The chemistry they had to do here is not usually part of high school chemistry I curriculum and takes them several steps further than they would otherwise have gone. It got them out and doing real problem solving with a real goals. Great Project!