Bike machine energy education

A bike-powered machine offers physical kinesthetic learning and play. This is equivalent to past generation's playing with Erector Sets to building Heathkits [1], [2]. The excitement of riding a bike machine offers a different path to learning that turns a short-term memory into a long-term memory. Bike machines provide energy education to the public in order for them to understand power generation which engineers frequently take for granted. People learn to correlate effort exerted with energy produced. The bike-powered machine group, a committee of Working Bikes Cooperative, Chicago, IL, creates bike-powered machines for schools, nature centers, museums and environmental science centers [3]. The eye-catching bike-powered machines are shown at street fairs, green festivals, energy fairs and educational institutions.