Los Angeles Students Experiment with Fuel Cell Technology

General Motors Hy-wire fuel cell concept vehicle

Los Angeles - Technology students from Virgil Middle School located in downtown Los Angeles will get hands-on experience by building a working fuel cell vehicle model today during the GM Tech Tour for Students at Dodger Stadium.

The Tech Tour for Students program is designed to teach middle school students about fuel cell technology by allowing them to help assemble a hydrogen fuel cell model car and learn about the positive environmental and economic benefits of a hydrogen economy. The program also highlights the ongoing fuel cell research and development that GM is embarking on as part of its ultimate vision of a hydrogen economy.

"In the not too distant future, fuel cell technology will be part of these students' daily lives," said Elizabeth A. Lowery, GM vice president, environment and energy. "By creating a curriculum that explores the technology now, our goal is to build an understanding and awareness about the technologies that our industry's engineers believe will ultimately reinvent the automobiles we drive today."

The program is an extension of GM's nationwide in-school fuel cell education program, "Fuel Cells: Driving the Future." This curriculum was launched last year, and has reached nearly 3.5 million middle school students. It was developed by Lifetime Learning Systems, Inc., a division of Weekly Reader Corp., and it provides science teachers with an engaging curriculum that highlights the fundamentals of hydrogen fuel cell technology. Weekly Reader is the leading classroom periodical publisher and currently serves more than 11 million children (pre-K through high school) and 400,000 teachers nationwide.

Tech Tour for Students and "Fuel Cells: Driving the Future" are part of GM's broader K-12 education initiative, which strives to enlighten and educate children about important technology issues that will impact their futures. These initiatives provide timely and interesting information, as well as suggestions for applying these ideas in a science curriculum.

GM's Tech Tour for Students is traveling to five U.S. cities in conjunction with the 2003 GM Technology Tour. Other stops have included Albany, NY; and Sacramento. The tour has also traveled to Ottawa, Canada, and will visit San Francisco in September. The Technology Tour provides local public policy and other opinion leaders an opportunity to experience advanced automotive technologies and innovative vehicles that offer a glimpse of future transportation. Included in the tour is GM's Hy-wire, the world's first drivable vehicle that combines by-wire technology with a fuel cell propulsion system. Other featured vehicles include gas-electric hybrids, clean diesels, and other fuel-efficient technologies like displacement on demand and continuously variable transmissions.

"GM has created and supported these education initiatives because we believe they are essential in creating a sustainable future," said Lowery. "Through our outreach programs, we involve young people to demonstrate that we all have a responsibility to protect our environment."