August 19-20 a group of 16 GET Citians trekked from Lansing to Chicago to expand their work on green energy technologies. We toured the Museum of Science & Industry’s Green and Wired House where youth were able to see principles of energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable forms in action. After taking a fun detour to Navy Pier, youth spent a full morning learning about and experimenting with batteries and fuel cells in Dr. Vijay Ramani’s electrochemistry labs in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. They were challenged with a homework assignment to determine the amount of Platinum required to run a 50,000 watt fuel cell car based on the results of a carbon platinum membrane plot of voltage v. current density. We are happy to report that the problem was solved on the train by the time we hit Battle Creek! The day ended at the Chicago Center for Green Technology.
