As they rounded the corner Wednesday afternoon, two Houghton Middle School students got a pleasant surprise — being presented with awards in a national contest.

Seventh-graders Morgan Saatio and Lucas Mayra were named winner and runner-up respectively, in the rEV Challenge, a multimedia program for middle and high school students organized by the National Energy Foundation. Students made a 30- to 45-second video about the future of electric vehicles and what benefits they could bring.

Andrew McNeally, energy efficiency program administrator at UPPCO, presented the prizes. Saatio and teacher Sarah Geborkoff won $2,000 gift certificates for e-bikes, while Mayra won a GoPro.

The news was kept hidden from Saatio and Mayra, as well as Geborkoff.

McNeally presents another award to Geborkoff. (Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette)

Saatio clapped her hands to her mouth in disbelief after hearing the news.

“I thought I was in trouble,” Saatio said. “I came down here and saw everything and was like, ‘Oh no, what’s going on?’ I’m on the verge of tears. It’s crazy.”

Saatio edited the video on her phone, combining her own digital art and copyright-free clip art. She provided her own background music on guitar.

“I focused on how it’s better for the environment and some key parts of the vehicle itself, like how it doesn’t need to be charged as often as you need to gas up,” she said. “And there’s less harmful emissions than a normal gas vehicle.”

Mayra’s video featured his toy electric car, which led into him talking about how long electric vehicles can travel on a single charge, and how they’ll become more common. Last year, the Big Three car companies jointly announced a goal of having electric vehicles account for 40% to 50% of sales by 2030.

He hopes future Houghton students get to participate in the program.

“I think it was a really good experience for me, learning about EVs,” he said.

Houghton students competed against more than 3,300 students from 48 schools across 16 states. UPPCO sponsored the program at six schools in its service area, where 526 students participated.

Geborkoff said the program fit with her curriculum, where students had just learned about green versus non-renewable energy. They’d also learned about fuel cells and green energy through a hydrogen fuel cell project with Michigan Technological University’s SAE Enterprise team.

Students started with what Gerborkoff likened to a “choose your own adventure” video where they had to decide on fuel consumption, choice of vehicle and how often they’d be driving. The students then explored their own course and learned about the pros and cons of electric vehicles.

Students watched last year’s entries and talked about this year’s project. Several groups of students took up Geborkoff’s challenge to get involved with the competition.

Geborkoff thanked UPPCO and everyone else who had supported the project.

“These are the kinds of extensions beyond the classroom that students need,” she said. “It gets them to really think and be creative and apply what they’ve learned in new ways. The prize is the icing on the cake. And we have just great students at HPTS that always want to rise to these type of challenges. So they’re a great thing.”