H2GP: HORIZON HYDROGEN GRAND PRIX as a novel approach to STEAM and clean energy popularization

Back in early 2000’s I used to have my favorite physics teacher, he begun every lesson with and short and fun experiment to keep us entertained and ready for the next 45 minutes. It worked! After few weeks all my classmates were looking for his lessons and we were curious what will be the next that we’ll learn that day. I think he was one of the main reasons that turned me into the becoming a scientist. As a scientist now I know how difficult it could be to explain science to anyone who is not from your field, or how to educate young students, and how even more difficult it is to do it in entertaining way. So how do we tackle the difficult task, make students passionate about science and eager to want to learn more without even noticing? Horizon Hydrogen Grand Prix is the answer!

Imagine you’re a high school student, what if I told you, that together with your friends, you could build your own hydrogen remote car. A car that only few are currently available but are expected to cruise our roads in a near future? That is Horizon Hydrogen grand prix. Let’s take a closer look!

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In the first four weeks the students broaden their knowledge and get along with fundamentals of renewable energy via hands on experiments. Experience gained during these experiments is then applied in second phase - building and development of hybrid car powered by hydrogen fuel cell. The car needs to be designed as a competition car, which means that the students must consider not only correct assembly of the vehicle but also optimize transmission ratio, weight distribution, engine electronics, etc. in order to be prepared for the final phase – national final. National final is organized as an endurance race where all student teams from the country come together with their car and compete against other teams. And guess what…there is more.

After a several years of running our program we manage to grow our community in 13 countries around the world. What does that mean? Well, simply that the national race is no more the top of the pyramid, there must be, yup you’re right, the World championship! All nationals’ winners now meet up together and compare, test and race their cars in an amazing final race. All of them dedicated their time after school to one mutual goal and now it is time… But regardless the result all of them could proudly say: “our school build one of the best hydrogen cars in the world!”