Sometimes you have to wonder what the Bonham High School ag class will have to do to get a little recognition.  Launch a John Deere into orbit, maybe? 

The BHS ag class quietly managed to accomplish something no other high school class in the nation has to date when they recently converted an older gas-powered tractor to electric drive.

Heads turned at Earth Day in Sherman when the boys from Bonham pulled up with the electric-drive pick-up the BHS ag class converted last year and this year's project, an electric-drive tractor.

"The tractor was a lot more complicated," remarked BHS ag - mechanics teacher Clint Minnick when asked to compare these two breakthrough projects.  "Truck conversions had been done before."

BHS computer analyst Mike Barkley has been an important part of this conversion team and so far he and Mr. Minnick have three successful projects under their belt.

The first experiment was a small trailer that carried a battery pack.  The electric-power-assist trailer doubled the gas mileage on Barkley's PT Cruiser once it reached highway speed.

"It turns anything with a hitch into a hybrid," Mr. Barkley points out.

Last year the class converted a small pick-up into an electric vehicle that could be utilized by the school district on a daily basis.  The 20-horsepower electric motor is only capable of running highway speeds for a short distance, but it has proven to be a perfect fit for what it was designed to do -- run errands between Bonham ISD campuses.

Maybe the most impressive thing the electric truck does is save the school district approximately $2,016 annually; an employee is compensated 45 cents per mile to use his or her own vehicle, while the electric vehicle costs between two cents and three cents per mile to operate. 

The electric-drive tractor has a solar array mounted on the canopy and this would be an ideal set-up for someone who uses a tractor for two or three hours at a time.  The tractor should be able to pull a shredder for close to three hours, recharge via the solar panels and be ready to go again tomorrow.  It can also be plugged into the grid to recharge the five heavy-duty batteries quicker.

The next project could also be a money-saver: plans are to turn a worn out zero-turn mower into electric-drive.  If the plan is successful, the school district would save the cost of replacing the mower, save on fuel costs and the electric-drive mower would be quiet enough to used without disturbing students on test days.

Maybe even more important, students are getting hands-on training to work on the next generation of cars and trucks - electric vehicles.

The tractor conversion project could even be turned into a small business.  Old tractors are readily available and there is a rapidly growing market for affordable electric tractors.

How can the community help these projects?  Bring old car batteries to the BHS ag class and Interstate Battery will pick up the old batteries and give the class credit towards new batteries for future projects.  Thanks in large part to GE employees in Bonham, the students have turned in enough old batteries to earn $2,400 in credit.

Another important player, Silgan Can Company, has donated much-needed electric motors from broken-down forklifts.

If you don't have any old batteries, perhaps a contribution would help the class buy supplies for the next cutting-edge experiment. 

One important contribution came from a teacher that noticed the impact these projects are having on students.  That may be an even more remarkable accomplishment than having the first electric-drive tractor in the nation built by high school students sitting in the BHS ag class.