Harnessing children's energy

From a Chronicle of Higher Education article (May 11, 2007) by Sierra Millman:

They've finally figured out a way to harness the energy of children. Engineering students at Brigham Young University have built a merry-go-round that will enable schoolchildren in rural Africa to light their own classrooms.

Ben S. Markham, a retired engineer and Brigham Young alumnus, conceived the project during a mission trip to Ghana, in West Africa. Classrooms there, he observed, have no lights, and the children have almost no toys.

"You see them chasing chickens and goats around," Mr. Markham says. "Occasionally you'll see a kid with an old, worn-out car tire and a couple of sticks, and he's kind of rolling it around." After talking with Ghanaian engineers, he realized that playground equipment -- not only a merry-go-round, but also swings and a zip line -- could serve many purposes, such as educating children about science and engineering and allowing adults more hours of the day to work....

Mr. Markham is confident the children won't lose interest: "It's not like they're going to go home and watch TV or play on their Xbox."