James Lyng Students to Launch Bike Generator

Students from James Lyng High School in St. Henri (5440 Notre Dame) will unveil two newly built bike generators on  Wednesday, May 23 (11 am) which will allow them to power a blender and a set of speakers. Guests at the launch will even be able to enjoy a free smoothie made with the bike powered blender, using the school’s vegetable garden harvests.

Last year Alison Manuel, one of James Lyng’s science teachers, saw that her students were struggling to learn the Quebec Technology curriculum. She subsequently went searching for innovative ideas to transmit the class’s concepts. In order to satisfy both the curriculum requirements and students’ interests, Ms. Manuel decided to set up a bike repair shop with and for her students. Through the schools Community Learning Center she received the support of multiple partners, such as the Eco-Quartier Sud-Ouest, Youth Fusion and McGill’s Education department.

The cross curricular unit increased student engagement and learning, and therefore school perseverance. With its focus on sustainability, the unit also increased awareness of the environmental and social benefits of cycling, encouraging them to develop safe urban biking practices, and helping them to see themselves as social change agents at the local and international levels. The bike repair skills acquired can also increase chances of employability for the youth involved.

As a way to give back to the local and international community, the bikes are donated to local organization Cyclo Nord-Sud, who, in turn, delivers these bikes to organizations in several African and Latin American countries to help support local social and economic initiatives.

To take the project one step further, some students along with team from Eco-Quartier built two bike-machines as prototypes for next year’s workshops. Through the Bike Repair Shop the school will be hiring seven students who will learn bike-repair and horticulture with the Eco-Quartier as part of a paid summer internship.