Story by Doug Russell
Reprinted Courtesy of the McAlester News
www.mcalesternews.com

Team Thunder Roars into Town

Kiamichi Technology Center students milled around the parking lot Thursday, but not because they were skipping class or indifferent to their lessons. Instead, they were getting quick lessons in math, science and technology with a teaching aid they could see, hear and touch.

"We did this to try to get students motivated," said Chris Murray, KTC automotive instructor. "This is something real that they can relate to."

That "something" was the Team Thunder Top Fuel dragster, which is capable of going from 0 to 285 mph in 5.35 seconds.

"Imagine that," said Sam Parton, a Grove social studies teacher who often drives the car in races. "That's the equivalent of going the length of a football field a second."

When Parton first started teaching some 15 years ago, he knew that he had to find some way of showing his high school students the value of education.

"I immediately saw the need for a way to bring the real world into the classroom," he said. "A bunch of Xs and Ys and Zs - they don't mean anything if you can't understand how to apply that theory to the real world."

One day he expressed his frustration to fellow teacher Jerry Porter - and was dismayed when Porter laughed. At first.

"He said 'You've got the loudest, longest teaching aid in the world'," Parton recalled. "I did, too. I'd been racing all my life, but I never thought about using the dragster as a teaching tool until he said that."

That was the beginning of Team Thunder - and the beginning of a program that has been across the country teaching math, science and technology to people while, at the same time, emphasizing the importance of an education.

"If you have an education, you can do anything," Parton said. "It may not be easy. You may not even see where it plays in at first. But an education is something you can't lose.

"You can have a nice car, a big fancy house. They can repossess your car, foreclose on your house. They can't take away what you know."

As Parton spoke to students outside, three other members of Team Thunder held classes inside KTC, presenting "round robin" styles of classes.

"It makes it a lot clearer than what they usually teach in school," said Brian Morgan, a junior at McAlester High School.

Using the car, Parton asked questions and gave explanations. For example: Why is the engine called a "Hemi?" Because its combustion chamber is a half moon, or hemispherical, shape.

Students answered most of the questions swiftly.

"If I've got a 20-gallon tank and I have to mix the nitro and alcohol at a 9 to 1 ratio, how many gallons of alcohol will it use?"

"Two."

Why are the wings of the car, which help keep it on the ground, not true wings? By definition, a true wing provides lift. The inverted wings of race cars provide downward pressure.

Some questions came from the students themselves.

For instance, what's it like to be in a car with a 5,000 horsepower engine; especially when it first takes off?

" If you can imagine sitting at a stop light in a very small car and having a semi truck hit you from behind, that's a good analogy," Parton said.

" It made classes a little more interesting," MHS senior Max Blansett said after attending the training sessions.

" Most people, if they can see it, touch it or smell it, they can do better with it," Parton said. "That's why we do this; to emphasize the importance of education and show some real world applications."