Green Energy Golf Cart: Project Based Learning for Innovation and Sustainability

The Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) project-based Honors "Authentic Engineering Experience" tasks students to design, prototype, and make a real product in one semester.The product was a modified hand-pulled "Green Energy" golf cart that used the rotational motion of one of the golf cart wheels to rotate a DC motor to generate electricity to charge a cell phone and a solar panel to power a thermoelectric cooler to chill a beverage.A secondary objective of the course was to expose students, early in their careers and under "authentic engineering" conditions to skills used in industry that students can relate to potential