Leelanau School students harness wave energy to light bulb

By Kristen Counts
Sun contributor

Imagine you are a student in a classroom on the first day of school. The teacher says, “Your objective in this class is to light a 100-watt bulb using the power of waves on Lake Michigan. The only help I will give you is in acquiring materials that you determine you will need.”
To me, that sounds more like a quest than a class; an ordeal through which someone might suffer on one of those reality television shows. As a mathematically challenged student, I probably would have bolted, no pun intended, for the door.
Impressively, Alex Levin-Koopman of Ann Arbor, Lindsay Simmons of Traverse City and Jon Wohlfert of Kalamazoo -three enterprising seniors at The Leelanau School – took on just such a challenge. Their math-physics instructor Nick Counts said he handpicked the students because of their combination of practical knowledge and “book smarts”.
Simmons, the group’s unofficial spokesperson, commented, “I and my classmates decided on the materials ourselves because there was no set way to make it. We conducted the whole process through trial and error.” Simmons, who had learned the basic concepts the previous year in Counts’ physics class, created the design for the “wave generator”. She is on her way to Michigan Tech University in the fall,
Wohlfert listed the materials used: “Copper wire, magnets, a PVC pipe, a metal rod, washers and nuts, rope, a pickle barrel, a dishwashing glove and a rotor from Mr. Counts’ old Honda Passport.”
The rotor served as the anchor. Wohlfert, always the joker, added, “We had to go with the ’94 Passport to get the maximum anchorage. The ’95 just wouldn’t do.”
Some materials for the project were generously donated. The students received copper wire from John Rutheford of Lake Leelanau, a pickle barrel from Art’s Tavern, and Rob Csortos, the Vice President of Duramagnetics in Toledo, Ohio, donated a high-power permanent magnet and offered advice along the way.
After a school year of planning and constructing, the day finally arrived to put the students’ wave generator to the test. On that drizzly, windy day in late May, I asked the students if they thought their project would work. Could light up a 100-watt light bulb with the power of the waves on Lake Michigan?
Levin-Koopman thought so. Wohlfert confidently announced, “I know it will work for a fact.”
Always the realist, Simmons thought for a moment and answered, “I’m not sure.”
But the battle plan never plays out just as it does on paper.
On the Lake Michigan shoreline as the wave generator awaiting its christening, the three suddenly realized that, despite all their high-tech constructing, they had nothing with which to cut the rope. A vicious two-out-of-three game of rock, paper, scissors was played to settle who had to go back for a knife.
Finally the big moment arrived. Levin-Koopman had imagined a warm, sunny day when he volunteered to take the wave generator into the lake earlier in the year. No dice. Unwilling to wear a wet suit, he braved the chill of Lake Michigan for the sake of science and, of course, his grade.
Now all the students could do was wait. Storing up the energy needed to light a bulb would take a while. The students left to attend to other work as the teacher stood sentry, watching the bobbing pickle barrel with high hopes.
In the end, all did not go as planned. The wave generator did not capture enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb. But the students were able to see enough energy harnessed to power a smaller light bulb.
“The problem was with the diode,” said Counts.
“If we would have had more time left in the school-year, we could have fixed the problem. We tested it late in the year because of the water temperature. Students next year will do some trouble-shooting on the project.”
Despite the outcome, Counts said he was very proud of this group for how hard they worked and all they learned. “The problem-solving abilities acquired for this project are invaluable.”
Sounds like the threesome earned “A” for effort.