Local bicycle Racer Alex Candelario and Reno Bike Project Co-Founder Kyle Kozar visited our classroom last Tuesday. They were there in support of our newest project. Both Alex and Kyle rode their bikes, they figured about 5 miles, which brought a look of disbelief on many of my students’ faces. My students’ experience with bike riding is a bopping-around-the-neighborhood kind of thing, so 5 miles seemed pretty far.

Alex, who races for the KBS Medifast Pro Cycling Team shared about racing, training, health, nutrition and living green. The students were intrigued by everything he shared including his description of his car which runs on vegetable oil. 

I’m used to my students being pretty shy and tight lipped … and not really forthcoming with questions or curiosity, but our experience Skypeing in Alan Levine 2 weeks ago should have given me a clue. I asked questions here and there to get things rolling and to keep things going, but I was probably in the way more often than not. Alex may have had a better workout answering questions from the class than he got riding the 5 miles to school.

They found out about everything from what he puts in his water bottles during a race, to how long races can be – up to 160 miles in a day.

Students took notes during the hour or so that Alex and Kyle spent in class, and will post what they learned to their blogs soon. Another great writing experience for them being more like on the spot reporters. They also reveled in finding Alex’s web site, and other references to him on the web.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, we are still in the research phase of the project and will be gathering information and making plans through next week. This went a long ways to generating excitement about bikes, racing, health and the Reno Bike Project!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again to Alex and Kyle!

Learning is messy!

Tags: BikeProject, bicycle racing