PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The Montana State University Solar Vehicle Project has received numerous requests for public demonstrations, invited talks, media events, literature, and advice regarding solar power and environmentally clean transportation methods. While our goals include widespread distribution of environmental technologies, our responses to these requests have been piecemeal and limited to a great extent by lack of planning and resources. We propose to incorporate a community service component into our project designed to meet the needs of the community regarding advances in solar power and electric transportation. The community service component will enhance the educational experience provided to project participants through the presentation of their achievements to the community. Project participants will, in addition, gain valuable experience through their roles as service providers and disseminators of information to the public. A student-run committee will be charged with creating a project video and other literature, and organizing presentation and service events. The project as a whole will periodically critique the committee's performance allowing each rotation to learn from the successes and failures of its predecessors. The project will periodically focus on service as a learning experience through advisor led group discussions. The performance of the community service format will be quantified through periodic member surveys or tests and the results reported in round table discussions.