Henry Ford built his first car at age 33. Senior Cameron Krause is only 18 and is already building his first car. It has been an interest of his since he was little, and Genius Hour is giving him an opportunity to do that.  

“I have, from the point that I was very little, always loved racing,” Krause said. “Now that I have the know-how to make one [a go-kart], I feel it would be a loss of myself if I didn’t try.”

Krause is doubling his Genius Hour project as his CTC senior project, so he’s going all-out on his design and building a system similar to what some Tesla models use.

“I’m building a regenerative braking system,” Krause said. “When you break or coast or anything like that, the force of the axles in the tires are going to recharge the battery.”

Krause only needs a few more parts for his go-kart before it is completed and hopes to have them by February.  

“I have asked the school for some support, and I’m just waiting to hear back on that, and when I do get that [the parts], it’ll be done pretty quickly,” Krause said.

Instructional Coach Mike Baker, who started Genius Hour, is impressed with a lot of the ideas students like Krause have come up with for Genius Hour. He thinks it is important students use Genius Hour to learn about their interests, instead of just treating the project like another research paper. 

“If it was something you like, why wouldn’t you want to tell someone about it?” Baker said. “I like Batman, so I could do my Genius Hour project, and I could make a slideshow about Batman and what I learned about Batman. That’s why it’s important to tell people what you love. What are you passionate about?”

Genius Hour has been an important step in rebuilding student-teacher relationships after COVID-19 because students missed learning face-to-face in a classroom setting.

“A big part of it [Genius Hour] is having teachers connect with students in a different way,” Baker said. 

Baker is unsure about the future of Genius Hour at the moment, and he says it will be decided by multiple variables, including student and teacher opinions.

“We take all of the students’ surveys, the check in and check out form,” Baker said. “There’s also a teacher survey that goes out, and we’ll take all that feedback and consider what it looks like going forward.”