$25,000 allotted for semester-long esk8 program. Distributers, manufacturers, and educators, help!

General Discussion
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Hey there everyone!

I previously started a discussion here. Since then, the project has come from an idea to reality!

My name is Jake De Necochea. I work for the Grow Manufacturing Initiative of Northern California. My job is to connect advanced manufacturing with education to create a technologically skilled workforce. I am working in conjunction with the Butte County Office of Education STEM Ninjas program to teach a class in electric longboarding. They have allowed a budget of $25000 to build a curriculum and allow for other expenses that may come with the class.

Since the idea has been approved, I will begin work on the actual curriculum and program planning. The mission statement of the STEM Ninjas program is to offer projects that students can bring home and replicate on their own, while teaching STEM practices. The eSk8 program would be no different. High school students would be taught what an electric longboard is, how it works, why it works, benefits of it, safety, and finally how to build one. They would be provided the necessary parts and tools, and students would be allowed to to keep the boards. We would take group rides to different manufacturers in the area for tours as well.

Major goals of the program are to allow reliable transportation for students in low-income areas, inspire students and show what they are capable of, and teach a wide variety of skills in the STEM field (including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, soldering, basic tool work and safety, engineering processes, physics, etc.).

I’m trying to decide what age group would be best, and I honestly think upperclassman students would be the best target audience. Juniors and seniors tend to be far more mature and level-headed, and I believe will take the program more seriously. I would accept younger students if they showed strong interest, but no one younger than high school.

What does everyone think? Given the three month time span, what should be taught?

Distributers and manufacturers: It would be greatly appreciated if bulk discounts could be made! Would anyone be available to do that?

Educators: Being that I am only 19 and have no formal education in teaching, I may need help with building an effective high school curriculum. Any tips you would have? I am adept at public speaking and creating/giving presentations, but I have never done something on this scale.

Thank you in advanced to everyone!

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(I am a Highschool student, so I am pitching in from what I believe may be a valuable perspective)

Make it experiential. If the class is on electric long boarding, allow them to build and experience their own. I don’t know how many students you have, but given that buying many parts can lower the price of a reliable electric longboard to as little as 500/unit , I really think you should allow them to learn by doing.

Step 1: layout - all of the parts, how they go together. No real esk8 yet, this could just be a PowerPoint telling them how to put it together.

Step 2: explanation - same thing with PowerPoint, but you explain the science behind each part and how it interacts with everything else.

Step 3: build your own - order parts and allow students to assemble their own unit, customizing it to what they enjoy.

Congrats overall, I really think this has the potential to help a lot of people. Consider also showing them this forum, the knowledge here could advance their education as well.

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I am very interested in getting into the educational space. I can definitely help with bulk discounts, and the 3 month time frame gives a good chunk of time to get everything sorted.

I have been working on kits for a long time and I think this would be a great way to get the ball rolling. PM me and we can chat on the phone if you want

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Wow, that’s a big budget. Hell if you’re allotting about $400 per student that’s 62 students through and through.

I would say the best age group are indeed Juniors and Seniors, Primarily Juniors. By then they would at a time where College is creeping up and them and the adults around them would be asking “what do you want to do with your life”. Introducing the world of ESK8’s could open a world to many students who are unsure of what they want to do in the world.

In a three month time span , I recommend spacing it out into three divisions: Planning, Skateboarding, and Electronics (The order is up to you).

For planning, understanding how to budget and understand the up-taking for projects is important in this field. Software such as 3D Modeling could even be introduced.

Skateboarding is important because these kids are going to eventually going to use them and they need to learn how to fall, proper stancing, and how important safety gear is.

The electronics, being the dangerous of the three is of course self explanatory.

For decks I advise using CustomSkateboards.com as they’re relatively local and do bulk manufacturing. It also allows you to give the kids variety at low cost. If you are able to establish a relationship and transaction with them, please have them come over to the forum! It would be awesome to have a home deck manufacture here on the forum.

Try hitting up caliber or Paris to see if they give you a educational bulk discount. The CS over there is good enough where I think something can be arranged. If not, maybe @torqueboards would be willing ?

For mounts and things related to building a drive train, perhaps a belt drive would be best (educational wise) since i don’t see companies like May-tech or Winboard giving education discounts for hubmotors but trying would’nt hurt. Maybe there would vendors on the forums who are willing to help out in supplying en-mass parts at a slight disocunt.

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I’m currently a sophomore, and I think that juniors and seniors would be the best choice for the class, for the reasons that you explained

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@anorak234 I like the idea of customization, but only to a certain point. It can become pretty hard to coordinate that many builds though. Maybe have different setup options, or two or three different builds they can do? Considering the time frame, I think that is all doable.

@Jc06505n Agreed! I am excited about it for sure. That is all really good input. I would like to focus the program on STEM practices as well. I like the idea of 3D Modeling as well! I will definitely start hitting up manufacturers to see what they can do!

@Jake2k17 Noted! May I ask why you think that?

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For carbon fiber boards I could get some free samples showing the layering involved in making carhon fiber boards from a mold. Just hit me up and well work it out. Sounds like an amazing project and coming from a family of teachers in all for education.

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Well, many people my age want to try out my board, but they don’t really care about the mechanics, just how fast it goes. Also, we aren’t really taught about engineering at all, so it may be too advanced for any high schooler who mainly taking general ed classes. However, my school disctric offers a STEM program, and only a select group of kids get in. I think a class like this would be a good fit for STEM. By the way I go to Santa Clara Highschool.

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For starters and could take up some time in class, would be some dc theory and ac theory. Get them edumacated on the electrical portion. What about a 3d printer for the class? Then you could do a crash course on 3d modeling/cad… i dunno maybe not enough time for that. I know the main point is to build a e board… but if you have all the parts you could handle that in the last month.

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Good luck man. Worse case scenario you’ll have an epic fun class and build 3 boards and let them all test drive it if possible.

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It would be an after school sign up type thing. I would highly encourage kids of lower skill level to sign up for sure, but I would only accept if they are genuinely interested in learning!

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PM’d! that sounds awesome!

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I wanna rock

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Theory may be too advanced, but basics of both would be good. I think a 3D Printer would be awesome! I actually have one readily available to teach with.

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I would definitely join

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I will try to make it an open source curriculum so other people can start classes too!

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Please do. There’s so much to learn.

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Where do you plann to do it?

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The class would be somewhere in butte county in California. We could also try to live stream it, but we couldn’t provide parts.

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