Clearman rallies the troops! While the projects are all done by students, we still need a guiding hand from Mr. Clearman. We may know a lot, but he's still much more savvy than we are.... For now....

Bring my creation to life!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The wrecked planter box is well on its way to being back in commision. Our crack team of builders are bringing the poor box back to life. Their prognosis: it will live a long and healthy life, though it may have some partial numbness.

I'm still so proud of our locksmiths. They got the project done, and the file cabinet is secure once more! Never underestimate the power of a bionaut! Let's keep this pace up, and have this building shining and secure before the end of the school year.

Computer team spreads the word. Even though our blog has gotten 76 hits recently, it's not quite enough. We're spreading the word, and these two are hard at work, making sure as many people as possible (who are worth telling) are told about our blog, and our cause. Let's hope these efforts become fruitful!

And our mechanics fueled up the car to take a spin- er, I mean, get the car running again. Even though you can't see their faces, I can almost promise that they were smiling and thanking me and calling me awesome and- well... Maybe not all that... But they weren't particularly UNhappy. Maybe I'll catch one of them smiling next time.

Who needs Megan Fox to be a Transformer?

Here in Biodiesel 2 we not only dig holes, scrape paint, and clean gutters; we make robots.
A couple of our intelligent students have taken on the job of transforming a electronic, toy car into a fuel combusting robot. The robot will be used to ignite three different fuels, (biodiesel, gasoline, and kerosene). It will be designed to gather and collect data about each reaction. According to the "Transformers" the purpose of this experiment is to find the flashpoints of each fuel, record how much light each fuel produces while burning, and how hot it gets as it burns. They are interested in including an infrared-thermal camera on the robot as well as an arm that will be designed to hold the torch to light the fuels and possibly record temperature. Don't worry everyone, the Fire Department will be involved!

Here are two of our Transformers checking out the car they may use for this experiment.

Oh the concentration of our young scientists!

Even a cool guy can be an intellectual!

Have you ever wondered what the inside of an engine looked like? Well biodiesel 2 students sure have. As seen in the picture below, one very muscular group of young men have taken it upon themselves to cut an engine of a lawn mower perfectly in half. When they succeed, we will be able to see exactly how an engine works. What goes where, when fluid X enters into chamber Y.

Can they do it? I think yes :)

But don't let me fool you readers, cutting an engine in two is not the only new project our class will be working on. It's not even the only meeting that we need strong young men to accomplish. Our predecessors put up a wind turbine, and as lovely as it is, and grateful as we are, and left it unfinished. They left out the ever so important sign. But never fear, the newbies are here. Three young men must dig two holes 36 inches deep to put the sign deep into the ground.

So readers see, we are always up to something in KWHS's 2nd period biodiesel!

As work continues on the Key West High Biodiesel car (sometimes called the Bio-Car), more and more parts are taken out, cleaned, repaired, or even replaced every day. On today's list of parts, the air-filter stood out among the other parts as being beyond filthy. It had to be sprayed down with a degreaser, scrubbed clean, and even sanded down before it was looking like it belonged in the car. Each day the mechanic team working on the car finds more parts to bring to working condition, and do a great job of doing just that.
Here's hoping they don't find anything much worse!

Another group, composed of volunteers, worked on beautifying our work area by removing paint from one of our many doors so that it may be repainted. The group scraped paint for nearly the entire class period, all so it can be redone to look as god as the pretty blue one next to it (you can see it in the side of the photo). Their hard work is actually to help reduce the energy our building uses. By painting these doors light colours, we can own some control over the natural heat-flow of the room, and use that to our advantage.
Plus, it's more fun than watching paint dry!

Bio-naut Clinton began work on the broken power washer. For reasons unknown (or at least untold) the old power washer just doesn't want to work. Mr. Clearman started the class with a bribe of chinese food to the student who could get it working. Many students jumped at the idea, but Clinton was the lucky volunteer who got to go to work on it.
It takes a real power-player to fix a broken power-washer!

And our up-and-coming locksmiths, Mary and Logan, work to installing locks on the "mysterious cabinet of destruction!" (also known as the old cabinet in the back of the class). Their project started quickly, and has kept that starting pace since then. It doesn't look like it'll be too long before they can work on another project! Their speed and gusto in completing their project is an inspiration to all the other groups to keep up the good work.
They found their target, and just LOCKED on!

Hello fellow followers :)
New school year, new senior class, and new bloggers for Mr. Clearman's second biodiesel class. While his first class has been the first to blog, that's because we have been hard at work. After the first couple weeks of cleaning his room its time to conquer the projects we've set for our selves.

After deciding upon which projects we wanted to take on, we took a short trip to the local Home Depot. Upon arrival our class was on every aisle learning what supplies we will need and to pick the brains of the helpful Home Depot employees on how we could complete our tasks.

Two ladies learning which tape will be best when working with electrical wire. They plan on turning a normal battery powered golf cart into a golf cart ran on solar panels. 

These two cousin's will work together to paint our biodiesel room. Not only to make it pretty and relay our message but to keep the heat out by painting with light colors.

Biodiesel is love.

Did you know that using biodiesel reduces emissions by 78%? When reading the article "School Children Endagered by Bus Emissions,Study Says"( which you can find at http://chalk.richmond.edu/elements/articles/bus_emissions/index.html ),According to the Union of Concerned Scientists studies of the effects of diesel emissions on children's health, "diesel school bus emissions are contributing to the deteriorating lung capacities of children, as well as increasing their risks of ashma, heart disease, bronchitis, lung cancer,allergies and premature death." Statistics show that ashma is currently the most prevalent cause of absences in the state of New Jersey, where the study was taken. The UCS stated that recent studies have found that polluted air can concentrate inside school buses and cause the 16,000 New Jersey children riding the buses to breathe air that is nearly 10 times more concentrated with particules and soot than they would inhale standing on the side of the road. With biodiesel these emissions would be signifigantly reduced, helping to better the health of these students, as well as students around the country.

Even a B5 mixture of biodiesel reduces emissions by 10%, which is showed in the graph above.

First blog post of the year? Arielle and T.J reporting for duty. We are Seniors this year and our Biodiesel 1 class at Key West High School is so excited to begin the projects we have lined up for this year. Some projects we have this year include: Fixing up an old 1985 Mercedes that has been converted to run on pure biodiesel, fixing various planter boxes for shrubs and other small plants, building a stand for our turbine sensor that the biodiesel class last year built, putting locks on our chemical drawers, running pipes through a cistern to water all of our newly fixed planters, and last but certainly not least, writing and completing a grant form so we can win the money to pay for it all. During all of these projects T.J. and I will be here to keep you posted as we make our little island a better place to call home, a cleaner more environmentally friendly home.

 Price comparing cement for our various projects!

 James and the crew looking for supplies and comparing prices.

Lauryn having some fun in Home Depot!