This is an example of the article that we sent in to science magazines (below is the email we sent to Sierra). Our goal was to introduce ourselves and our projects to the science magazine writers so they could decide whether or not they wanted us to be featured in a future issue.
"We are a group of students from Arlington High School in New York. We are currently involved in a research project, and our team has been nationally recognized as one of the 16 winners of the Lexus Eco Challenge competition. As part of our ongoing project, our team is interested in spreading awareness of large-scale energy harvesting and various renewable energy sources. We would like you to consider featuring our project in a future issue of the Sierra.
Our project is focused on teaching future generations about energy conservation and current environmental issues in a playful way. Through extensive research, we have determined that through fun, exciting presentations, children absorb more information about eco-friendly ideas.
One of our ideas is to design a vegetable oil bus (a full sized bus fueled by vegetable oil) that will function as an educational lab for children. As part of this, we will be partnering with a local restaurant to get waste cooking oil to power the bus. Another main focus of our project is the energy bicycle (a bicycle that produces electricity when ridden). After borrowing an energy bike that we used to demonstrate to children how kinetic energy can be converted to electrical energy, we had the idea to build our own energy bike. We are currently in the process of building the bike and once it is built, we plan to donate it to a renowned science musem such as the NYSci in New York City. By educating children about energy bikes, we can help bridge the gap between entertainment and saving the environment to combine these two in a interesting, cutting-edge manner. These are two of the many innovative ideas we have that will simultaneously save budget money and the environment. Furthermore, we are currently researching and expanding our knowledge of ways renewable energy sources benefit our country. For instance, they reduce our dependence on foreign commodities, which is beneficial to the economy, and they offer a clean alternative that won’t further harm the environment.
We would greatly appreciate any publicity you would be able to offer us. Thank you for your time and consideration, and we hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Dorthy Fang, Jamie Hilser, Mirhee Kim, Sid Marthi, Jim Olyha, and Natsuko Sato
"
