Last Christmas morning, Ian Churchill woke up to find a new bike trailer waiting for him. At 6 a.m., Ian now throws his backpack, lunch, saxophone and his brother’s clarinet into the covered trailer attached to his K2 mountain bike and embarks on the two-mile ride to Seven Peaks School in west Bend.

“I just like pulling my own weight, literally,” said Ian, 11.

Ian and his fellow sixth-graders were put to a challenge at the beginning of the school year by Dante Biancucci, 39, the sixth-grade science and math teacher. Biancucci challenged his 48 students to ride their bikes to school as much or more than he did. The reward: a free lunch at the end of the semester.

The challenge taught the students about energy conservation and complemented other academic projects about energy. Through education about conserving energy and raising awareness, according to Biancucci, habits can change at any age.

“It’s fun,” Ben Walter, 11, said about biking to school. “It’s not burning as much fuel.”

Added Ian, “Plus you get a free sandwich.”

His mother does not have to burn fuel driving her two sons, Ian and Will Churchill, to school every morning.

It’s more sustainable for his brother and him to ride their bikes to school, Ian said.

“There’s no real reason to drive,” Ian said. “You get in a huge SUV with a small backpack with you, and you have to drive it — it doesn’t make sense.”

At the beginning of the year, when students introduced themselves and shared something about their interests, Biancucci told them that he enjoys riding his bike. He knew some eighth-grade students challenged themselves to ride their bikes to school last year, and Biancucci decided to present his sixth-grade students with a similar mission.

“I do it myself, and it’s fun. I enjoy the exercise, and I realize that it’s a more sustainable method of transportation,” Biancucci said. “I invited the kids along to see what I would get, and the kids were really excited about it.”

Last semester, Ian and Ashlynn Kitatake-Meyers, 12, won the challenge. Ashlynn rode her bike to school all but four days, and Ian all but six days. At the end of the semester, Biancucci paid for roast beef and turkey sub sandwiches for the two students from Tony’s Delicatessen.

Ashlynn participated because she likes to bike, it’s a healthy activity and it helps the environment.

“I would be using a lot of fuel even to go half a mile,” she said about riding in a car to school. “Biking wouldn’t use any fuel other than the food you eat. I see it as being green.”

The students biked through snowstorms, rough terrain and even at night as the days became shorter. Obstacles did not deter the sixth-graders, though.

“Snowstorms are kind of fun,” Biancucci said.

“Because you can’t see,” Ian added with a smile.

Flat tires, icy paths and uphill climbs were all part of the challenge. Ian crashed his first trailer in the snow earlier in the school year, Ashlynn fell on the ice at least five times, and Ben had to bike five miles to the top of Awbrey Butte, where his family lives.

Many of the students’ bikes were equipped with lights. Backpacks contained water, cold-weather gear, spare tires, patches, Band-Aids, energy boost pouches and CO2 bike tire refills.

“I think he does it more for the challenge than for the free sandwich,” said Bruce Churchill, Ian’s father.

Some mornings were hard for Ian to get up and bike to school, he said. But as the days passed and biking became routine, it was easier for him to get out of bed. This semester, he continues to rise early and pedal to school.

The students helped the teacher get out of bed, too.

“Knowing that Ian was biking every day gave me more inspiration to get up and bike,” Biancucci said.

On some days, the challenge was biking home.

“You might just have a bad day at school and you don’t want to bike home, but you choose to,” Ashlynn said.

Biking to school every day has taught the students not only about energy conservation, but other habits as well.

“I liked the independence of it,” said Alex Browning, 12.

Students problem solve and fix flat tires along the route. They are responsible for their safety and learn to be aware, Biancucci said.

The sixth-grade teacher also organizes academic projects to teach students about the environment.

Last month, students created three- to five-minute infomercials that described different types of energy sources, such as solar, biomass, wind and even coal. The infomercials, which were created using a green screen and video technology, were presented at a sixth-grade viewing last month.

The purpose of the project, according to Biancucci, was to address the question of how the world will meet its energy needs in the future. He hopes to take the students on field trips to wind farms and Bonneville Dam in the future.

Information about the environment and future energy needs is being increasingly incorporated into school curriculum and government policy, according to Biancucci.

“It’s a growing awareness,” he said. “It’s a different world. There’s more people on the planet, and we are realizing that we can’t live the way we did 100 years ago.”

Seven Peaks also is working toward earning the Oregon Green School certification, which acknowledges schools that are making green goals and have programs to recycle, reduce waste, save energy and conserve water.

Transportation was one habit some students changed, biking to school instead of riding in a car, Biancucci said, and as people become more educated about energy conservation, other habits could change, too.

“They will have the education to change their habits, things at home and be able to educate the student body here,” he said.

Halfway through the spring semester, Biancucci’s students are continuing the challenge. And they plan to pursue the biking habit into the future.

“I’ll probably go through high school” biking to school, Ian said. “I don’t want to grow up and walk around in spacesuits,” he said about burning fuel and its reported effect on global warming.

“We could save money by not buying a car and biking to school,” Ben said.

“And then we could use the money to go to college,” Alex added.

Ashlynn hopes to purchase an energy-efficient car when she gets older, and plans to bike to school depending on distance.

Ian, Ben and Alex recommend to everyone to bike at least once somewhere — whether to school, work or the gym.

“At least try to bike to school, just to try it once,” Ben said, “and if you can’t do it again, then don’t do it.”