RE: Physics Club help

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Jonathan Peakall" <jpeakall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Tyler,

I have run an after school science club at the Mendocino High school for
about 4 years now. We built the first hydrogen fuel cell robot built by a
high school. The only other one we know of was built by Sandia Labs.

Funding is always the big challenge. We get ours from a variety of sources.
Here are a few ideas:

Get local businesses to donate items and have a raffle. We generate at least
$500 a year this way, and could get more if we tried harder. It's all about
selling tickets.

Site council, if your school has one or the local PTA may donate start up
money. When applying for such money, emphasize that the money they give you
will start a long term program which will not end once the money is spent.
They like things like that, and it sets the ground to come back and ask for
more money later ;-0.

Direct donation of parts and equipment from manufacturers. I have gotten
literally thousands of dollars this way. For example, the makers of the
Basic Stamp have donated oodles of parts and raffle items, and have always
been very nice about it. I have gotten used to begging, and it works quite
well ;-0

Grants are another source, but are harder. First you need to find a grant
which fits the kind of things you do. We got a grant from BP (the oil folks)
to set up a fuel cell research program. We bought fuel cells, laptops, test
equipment etc. This is one where having a teacher present the grant will be
important as they expect it. Also plan on not getting most of the grants you
apply for. In fact, be stoked if you get one! We applied for grants for
years before finally ringing the bell.

If possible, get a website up with a description of your goals and purpose,
along with pictures of y'all actually doing neato looking stuff. Take
pictures of students wearing goggles and looking serious ;-0. We started the
fuel cell robot on a shoestring and soon ran out of money. Putting up a
website detailing the project very, very much improved our chances of
donations. Things really started to roll after that.

Finally, I wouldn't make a big deal out of making a Tesla coil at first.
That will raise eyebrows, and you don't want that. We had a student make a
coil gun/gauss cannon last year. We called it a Magnetic Linear Mass
Accelerator. Sounds much more like science and much less like fooling around
than "coil gun" does. They don't need to know that we were seeing how great
a thickness of cardboard that the CG could penetrate ;-0.

Presentation is key in such matters. Talk about "creative, hands on learning
enviroment" and terms like that. Don't make your goals specific, like "high
voltage". Keep it general to gather as much interest as possible. You want
the club to appeal to as many people as possible. The more interested
people, the better your chances for funding.

You can see our webpages at:

http://madlabs.info/H2_FCRobot_Chron.shtml

http://musd.mcn.org/%7Ethahn/club/club.html

I just went to look for the student page and *blush* it appears to be down.
It has the mission statement, plans and goals along with cutsie pics of
students doing stuff.

Feel free to contact me off list if I can be of any help. What you are doing
is great, and you may set in motion a program that will continue long after
you leave the school. Good luck!

Jonathan

PS Terry, I've been meaning to thank you for your vote as judge of the
innovation in robotics contest. At least, I assume that you must be the
Terry Fritz mentioned and that you voted for us ;-0. We used the contest
money to buy a metal hydride hydrogen storage tank for the 'bot.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 7:34 PM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Physics Club help
>
>
> Original poster: Tyler Pauly <rpggod714@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hello, I'm a junior in high school. I'm trying to get
> a physics club started at my school, but need some
> ideas - name, fundraiser, anything you think might
> help out in creation of this idea. I wanted a club
> where you could be creative about which topics we
> learned about, and good room for projects. Of course,
> I plan to have the first project be a tesla coil,
> having previously made one and hungry for another. The
> subject would be "high voltage" or something.  Thanks
> for any help/suggestions.
>
>             Tyler
>
>
>
>