May 9, 1996

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center
(713) 483-5111

Mary Ann Amelang
Publicity Chairman
Ed White Parent-Teacher Association
(713) 326-3734

Release: 96-015

NOTE TO EDITORS:

JSC Engineers, Fifth Graders Cap Project With Solar-Powered Race May 14

Fifth-grade students at Ed White Elementary School, El Lago, will highlight a week spent working with seven NASA engineers to design and build solar-powered model cars with a race of the models at 1 p.m. May 14 in the school's parking lot.

Media are invited to attend the race at Ed White Elementary School, 1708 Les Talley Drive, El Lago. In the event of rain or heavily overcast skies, the race will be postponed until 1 p.m. May 15.

The innovative educational project, called "Solar Power Up," is sponsored by the Texas Solar Energy Society, which provided solar cells, motors, gears and other parts for the model cars. In addition to teaching students about alternate energy sources, the project also teaches students to work in engineering design teams and make group engineering decisions as they construct the models. The seven NASA engineers assisting with the project include Mike Ewert, Cindy Cross, Mike Rouen, Joe Kosmo, John Cornwell, Jeff Dominick and Betsy Kluksdahl. Except for Kluksdahl, they are all part of JSC's Crew and Thermal Systems Division, which designs spacesuits, spacecraft life support equipment and spacecraft cooling equipment, among other engineering tasks. Kluksdahl works in JSC's Propulsion and Power Division, which designs spacecraft thrusters and electricity-generating systems.

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