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Success with the Schulich Axiom Alberta Tour 2012
The race team arrived home last week after the very successful Schulich Axiom Alberta Tour 2012 (SAAT)! This year the team focused on visiting as many schools across the province as possible to reach new students through our school visits program. We visited students in Big Valley, Sherwood Park, Barrhead, Fox Creek, Sylvan Lake, Sundre, Cochrane, and Turner Valley over the five day tour of Alberta.
In case you didn’t see us on SAAT, see below for a quick recap and check out our new YouTube channel for our Vlogs!
Day 1 - We were fighting with the weather (heavy fog that morning!) as we headed out from our shop at the University of Calgary, but once we were out of city limits, Jack took the first turn in Schulich Axiom as we headed to Big Valley. Our first school visit at Big Valley School was great as Jordyn and Susie presented and the race team answered student questions as they came out to see Schulich Axiom. The residents of Big Valley were incredibly welcoming and we got to check out the local museum, roundhouse, and grain elevator too; it was definitely a great start to the tour!
Day 2 -We packed up from our camp site in Big Valley and headed to Sherwood Park! We had beautiful weather for our solar car drivers and had Steph, Susie, and Ian up for a drive. We actually have four team members trained to drive solar; this is so we can switch out drivers before they feel fatigued. This really comes into play during our races where (for example the World Solar Challenge) where we can drive from 8am – 5pm and then must stop for each night of the week long race. In the intense conditions of the Australian Outback, we want to make sure our drivers are able to focus even if we can’t stop for breaks. We follow the same protocol for our tour to help train our members.
Day 3 - We started out the day with a school visit in Barrhead (requested by a Solar Team alum!) and then headed to Fox Creek for a special event. The students at Fox Creek School received a BP A+ for Energy grant to convert a VW Beetle to an electric powered car. We didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived, but it was an amazing project! Of course it seemed only fitting that we test up the school’s “Juiced Up Beetle” against Schulich Axiom, so after our school visit presentation and viewing we headed down the street for a race. It was a close race too; Axiom tripped on the starting line, so it took a second to take off while the Juiced Up Beetle was leaving us in the dust! But our solar driver, Jack, didn’t hold back and overtook the Beetle. It all made for a very exciting race, click here for our Vlog including the race!
Day 4 - The race team was still excited from our race the day before as we headed to Sylvan Lake and Sundre for school visits (and the fact that we got to stay in cabins for the night instead of camping in the cold didn’t hurt either). One thing that can be surprising is that Schulich Axiom is street legal, we drive Axiom on public roads and highways to get from school to school during our tour. The stipulation on this though is that we drive in a convoy: a lead car in front and a chase car staying close behind our solar car. This is really for safety so that other motorists don’t get too close to Axiom, keeping in mind seeing our solar car zipping down the highway can be quite a sight.
Day 5 – We finished up our tour with an impromptu visit to Cochrane as we got to have an informal viewing with students from the Elementary, Junior High, and High School there. Cochrane is actually, our very own solar driver and engineer, Ian’s home town, so it was awesome to be able to stop in. From there we were off to Turner Valley were we actually got to give a community presentation at the library as the local school had a day off. Was great to be able to see students of various grades, their parents, and grandparents come by to see Schulich Axiom and ask us questions. From there we headed off for our team retreat (in perfect timing too as the next morning we battled the snow and slush close to Bragg Creek). On Saturday we even gave another impromptu viewing to a couple groups of boy scouts as they spotted our trailer!
All in all the Schulich Axiom Alberta Tour went off amazingly! It was great to be able to visit numerous schools and be greeted with curious and engaged students at each stop! The team sincerely thanks all the schools and towns visited for their warm welcome. Of course this tour would not have been possible without our Generation 4 sponsors and we’d like to thank our Generation 3: Schulich Axiom project sponsors again for their previous support as we move forward onto our new generation.
Jodi Bengtson
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