In the small, stand-alone building of Dade Middle School, Bill Shelton teaches a unique elective: electric vehicle design.
The semester-long class teaches eighth graders, along with some lucky sixth and seventh graders, how to build and race electric go-karts. Shelton’s students have won Chattanooga’s Green Prix, an electric vehicle race amongst the area’s schools, four times in a row in the middle school division.
Students design, build and test the kart in preparation for the April race. The build begins with a completed frame from a kit the school purchased. From there, students, with light guidance from Shelton, construct the car one piece at a time.
“Basically every nut and bolt they have to put together,” Shelton said during one of the semester’s final classes.
It takes eight to 10 weeks to build out the kart using complex assembly instructions. Students are responsible for installing everything from the brake system to the electrical connections.
All parts come with the purchased kits, but certain aspects of each kart — steering wheels, nose cones — can be modified. Students in the class have access to a 3D printer to create these parts.
“We’re just mending bridges between classroom and workforce development,” said Shenea Hill, the director of career technology innovations for Dade County Schools. “It’s a great hands-on project for them to apply their engineering skills.”
Hill brought the elective to Dade Middle School around 2021 after spending time working in Huntsville area schools, where the electric vehicle races took a stronghold in regional high schools. Hill said the schools were so serious about racing that they built full tracks into campuses.
Shelton doesn’t let the middle schoolers touch the car until they can name all the tools. The most important aspect is building communication, Shelton said. Then, the students slowly familiarize themselves with using the tools by building the car.
“Most of our students come from a background of farming,” Hill said in an interview after the class. “They grow up in different settings that require you to go outside and work with your hands.”
That background gives students in Dade County a leg up when it comes to building the car, Hill said. Shelton said it allows for students with more experience to teach their peers. The class keeps students who might normally find a traditional classroom boring engaged in their work, Hill said.
EV Dade Middle School
A DAY IN CLASS
The students, clad in their sweat-wicking race shirts, huddled around the car. The brake light had gone out since their previous? class, and Shelton said that if they wanted to take it out for some laps, they would need to fix the wiring.
Leading the pack were the two crew chiefs, Nick Evans and Camdyn Williams, one crew chief per car the class has. The two fidgeted with the wires, requesting tools from their classmates. Their peers offered ideas and sneaked in hands to help when they could. After a flurry of movement and chatter, the students stepped back from the mounted car to test the brake lights. The light strip on the back of the car glowed red.
The only girl on the team suited up as the students hauled the car out the classroom’s back door. Marley Talley strapped her racing gloves on and carried her helmet out to the parking lot. She is one of four team drivers. Tulley said her favorite part of driving is the exhilaration of being behind the wheel.
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Andrea Cain, a coach for the team, brought 10 years of experience competing in the World Karting Association. Cain teaches the team’s drivers all there is to know about race rules and turn timing. After practice laps on race day, the drivers would discuss with Cain where they could improve on the track. The April 11 race ended with the middle school’s two teams coming in first and second place, a first in program history.
Evans and Williams secured Tulley’s seat belt harness while several students equipped with walkie-talkies stationed themselves on the makeshift track — the parking lot’s road surrounding the small building — to call in if there were any cars on the road.
With the all clear, Tulley got a push start and took what looked like calm laps around the building. The car can reach up to 20 mph, according to Shelton. When Shelton noticed a chain come loose from the kart, four students rushed to fix it after Tulley brought the kart to a stop.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that there isn’t an issue we have to resolve,” Shelton said.
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The kids were still in pit crew mode from their race several weeks earlier. During the race, students are graded on their performance in the first race, the second race and their troubleshooting when there’s an issue with the kart.
At the race, both of Dade’s middle school teams were one and two points away from a perfect score in troubleshooting, another record for the program.
“Alright, we’re at practice, but I want this to be a quick pit change,” Shelton said when the students switched out drivers. “Act like it’s real.”
Shelton, as a coach and teacher, kept a hands-off approach to diagnosing problems. Instead, he drilled the students on response times, communication and problem-solving. Shelton wasn’t allowed in the pit crew tent on race day, but it was clear, at least during one of their final classes of the semester, that Shelton had done a good job training the students.
Evans said he feels like he has learned to lead. He enjoys the responsibility Shelton placed on his and Williams’ shoulders as crew chiefs.
Soon, the students will deconstruct their race karts to end the school year, closing the chapter on this year’s class. After that, they will be left with just the frame they started with so that next year’s students can begin the process from scratch.
Contact Northwest Georgia reporter Ignacio Perez at iperez@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6710.
Note: This story was updated May 11 to correct the spelling of the name of driver Marley Talley.