European Hydrogen-powered Endurance Race Showcases Promise of Science Education

PRAGUE, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

On Thursday, April 30^th, the Hydrogen Horizon Automotive Challenge kicks off in Prague to launch the European contest for students across European countries. Student teams will compete in Prague to survive a four-hour endurance race with remote-control cars which they have built themselves using hybrid hydrogen power systems. The event marks the beginning of an international series designed to highlight clean energy as part of the technical education.  

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The initiative is initiated by Horizon Educational which has become a major player in the design and provision of teaching and learning materials in the technical fields. Founded in 2013, the company now has customers in 80 countries, mainly in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Offering a range of science kits, Horizon is committed not only to providing educational tools to promote technical education worldwide, but also to opening young minds to the wonder of renewable energy science.

"We are proud and excited to play a part in supporting the learning of technical subjects with our involvement in the Hydrogen Horizon Automotive Challenge," said Timo Lukkarinen, CEO of Horizon Educational. "We are convinced that practical, problem-based learning is the future of science education - and by staging the 'Le Mans' of remote-control hybrid hydrogen cars we are helping to give students an experience where they are learning a lot while also having a lot of fun."

From Prague the competition moves to St Martin de Boulogne on 15-16 May, while May also sees a twin event involving seventeen schools in Florida. In 2016 the challenge goes intercontinental, with 200 European schools and 240 in the United States already signed up to participate.

All schools participating in the contest get not only all the equipment and hardware for their technical classes, but even more importantly they receive a complete curriculum with lesson plans, teachers' guides, experiments examples and labs, which they can use for the next several years. This important set of teaching material is prepared by professional teachers cooperating with Horizon Educational across the globe and localized for each market.

Kateřina Horiszny Šarešová, Managing Director, Horizon Europe, also said: "We feel that finding the technicians and engineers of tomorrow is becoming a general problem for all industrial groups worldwide. Therefore, we are trying to make technical education more popular so that it can again attract many students."

SOURCE Horizon Educational