I have always been enrolled in challenging classes through high school to help prepare myself for college. Last year I took AP/Honors Physics and that class sparked my interest in science. This year I am also enrolled in AP Calculus, which has helped me greatly with physics. I plan to go to the University of Michigan and study environmental engineering. Because of my plans I decided to become more involved in environmental engineering while I am still in high school. That decision led me to take this independent study class.

In AP/Honors physics last year a community member donated an Oldsmobile that ran on vegetable oil. Mr. Bailey split our class into engineering groups and we all used physics to come up with new proposals to make the car more fuel-efficient. The winning proposal was selected and introduce to the car through the school’s auto department. This activity sparked my interest in environmental engineering. I asked Mr. Bailey what more I could do and he told me to take an independent study class next year that would produce biodiesel. I accepted his offer and signed up for the class.

This class has been very informative and beneficial to my science skills. We have used physics and chemistry throughout our class to effectively make biodiesel. With the experience I have gained from this class I can now be more involved and better understand some aspects of environmental engineering in the future. I know that there already is a group of engineers at Michigan who are studying bio-diesel and plan to use it to fuel the university busses. I will be able to help this endeavor with the knowledge I have gained from this class.

Joe Beck
Class of 2009
Honors Physics Student – 2007/08 School Year
Independent Study Class – 2008/09 School Year

Student Testimonial #2

After hearing about the veggie mobile after my junior year at Petoskey High School, I began to inquire about the purpose and objective of it and when I found out more about the veggie mobile it grabbed my attention and that’s what led to my decision to take this independent study course. My interests have always been around cars and how they work and since I’m now paying lots of money to fuel my car I’ve taken great interest to partake in alternative fuel research and development to help my understanding on other ways to power vehicles.

As fuel becomes scarcer and costly more career opportunities will open up, and I personally feel that since I have decided to take this coarse and hopefully will be a couple steps ahead of others who later decide to get involved, and at the same time I could use this class to help become a candidate for several scholarships for undergraduate students who are looking to pursue alternative fuel research. During the process of making bio-diesel there are many applications of Math (conversions, cost analysis, etc.), Chemistry, and Physical science, like for example the chemical reactions that occur when the sodium/potassium hydroxide is mixed with the methanol, large amounts of heat are dissipated from the reaction. One by- product of making bio-diesel is glycerin, and we are currently in the process of taking the glycerin and making soap out of it, and so far we have made a few bars of soap, and in my opinion it cleans a lot better than any soap you can buy at a grocery store. Once we get done making soap we are going to start doing emissions testing on the veggie mobile and we are going to collect that data and start to compare it to other emissions from other cars. We then plan to analyze the data to see what kind of effect the emissions have on the environment.

I want to go to Michigan Technological University to further my studies in Mechanical Engineering (Automotive Engineering) and my future goal is to help design the next Dodge Zeo. (or another vehicle) I hope to have a deeper understanding on what makes a vehicle more efficient and some alternative ways to power it (electric, hydrogen fuel cell, bio-diesel, etc.), and 10 years from now when oil is over $200+ a barrel, I will have beneficial experience from taking independent study with Mr. Bailey (the independent study is what predominately gained my interest in the alternative fuel aspect of cars).

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science (Henry Poincare); so until we know that the collection of facts isn’t true science, our knowledge and understanding of alternative fuels will be immature. How this applies to what I have dealt with during the time that I have been in this class is that science and engineering can’t simply be outlined in a text book, and any information gained from hands on experiences gets you one step closer to truly understanding how things work, and because of that it has allowed me to think outside “the box” and understand “real science.”

Justin Weld
Class of 2009
Chemistry Student – 2007/08 School Year
Independent Study Class – 2008/09 School Year