La Mirada High students race boats to learn about alternative energy - The Whittier Daily News

The old wood-shop class is out at La Mirada High School, ushering in a new focus on alternative-energy sources and more environmentally oriented construction.

It’s why students in teacher Ken Yoshioka’s green construction/alternative classes built catamaran sailboats, turned them into boats powered by two double-A batteries and, on Monday, tested their craft in races.

• Video: La Mirada High students race motor boats in alternative energy class

It was all in good fun for the youngsters, whose biggest problem was not the seaworthiness of their creations but getting them to run straight.

Still, freshmen Natalie Cano, 14, of Norwalk, and Guillermo Molina, 15, of La Mirada, triumphed. Their boat, called “Commander,” sputtered straight enough to win the 10:15 a.m. class championship.

Each of Yoshioka’s five classes had a similar competition.

Cano enjoyed the project. “First, we did a sailboat, then we had to do the motorboat,” she said. “I like setting up the design on what you wanted to do and then doing what you can to make it go faster.”

Yoshioka’s goal is for students to take away a number of lessons. “I hope they learn there are different types of alternative energy that we can use instead of electricity,” he said. “They also had fun putting things together and saw the different types of boats.”

• Video: Guillermo Molina’s boat wins the championship race at LMHS

Teamwork on the project is paramount, Yoshioka said, as students needed to work in pairs.

It was a novel experience for many of the kids. “It was interesting because I had never made a boat before,” said sophomore Edward Martinez, 15, of Brea. “Just building something that runs â€" that was pretty cool.”

Sophomore James Matthews, 14, of Whittier, agreed. “It was fun because I learned new stuff about making boats,” he said. “I liked being able to build it and put it together.”

Yoshioka believes it’s especially important that students learn about about alternative sources of energy such as solar-power installers, boat mechanic, or wind power engineer. That’s where the jobs are likely to be, he said.

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