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The Skinny: One mission of the Ohio Steel Council was to educate youth about the contributions steel makes to the state's economy and well-being. As a means to this end, the group financed a newsletter for seventh- and eight-grade educators that provided practical classroom tools, curriculum-based information and creative ideas relating to steel and Ohio's industrial community. The excerpt below is from an issue focusing on automobiles, which featured articles such as different metals found in cars and how explosions power the engine.

Style: Simple language that teachers can easily translate into class material.

Excerpt:

Steel, Plastic, Magnesium, Aluminum - All That Goes into the Making of an Automobile

Automakers face never-ending challenges to trim vehicle weight, increase gas mileage, lower costs and improve safety. So what does that mean for industries that supply the raw materials to build cars, like the steel industry?

Steel fights a constant battle with plastics, aluminum and other metals like magnesium to maintain a dominant force in automaking. For example, most car dashboards were once made of steel - now they're mostly plastic. And up until 1990, manufacturers rarely used magnesium in automobile construction; today, it is used in most automobile instrument panels.

One main focus in automaking today is on vehicle weight. Lighter cars get better gas mileage. Many high-tech materials, including some types of steel, trim pounds off total vehicle weight, allowing automakers to meet government-mandated fuel efficiency standards. By reducing the car's total weight by 200 to 400 pounds, manufacturers can improve fuel efficiency by about one mile per gallon.

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