Solar-powered Car Races Spice Up Science Class

Combine seventh graders with warm weather and a cool science project, and it turns into a fun week.

That was the recipe in Tom Pee’s seventh grade classroom at this week. Thanks to a contribution from , who received a $500 grant from Green Power EMC, Pee’s classes enjoyed the second annual “Sprint to the Sun” races for solar-powered cars the students built Monday and raced on Friday.

“It’s a lot more fun being able to go against your friends, instead of just doing a regular classroom experience,” said Sarah Slocum, who partnered with Bailey Carter to win the Science 3 section with the “Beast Mobile.” “It was fun, decorating was probably the best part,” she said.

In teams of two, the students raced cars on a basketball court outside Pee’s classroom.

Jennifer Broun, a Community and Youth Coordinator with Walton EMC, said this gives Walton an opportunity to promote being green. Broun said Walton hopes to add more schools in the company’s 10-county service area in Northeast Georgia.

Broun contacted Pee through Mike Callinan, the school’s technology coordinator who works with robotics classes. Last year, Pee tweaked the lesson from a robotics class, which built a solar car as a prototype.

The project reinforces lessons from the unit on electricity, which followed a lab-based lesson in the fall, and a research paper on diseases in the winter, Pee said. Because the seventh graders leave for a tour of Washington, D.C. next week, Pee said the activity offers an outlet to anxious energy.

“This is a great way to finish the week,” Pee said. “They’re kind of wound up because of that.”

Last year’s project took eight days, while this year's was cut to five. Construction took place on Monday and Tuesday, testing on Wednesday and Thursday and the much-anticipated races were held on Friday.

Pee said the unit teaches students how to convert sunlight into electricity, and receive mechanical energy from an alternate source. Other lessons with the project are problem solving and troubleshooting if there are problems in construction.

“One of the clamps of the solar panels didn’t clamp on well,” Slocum said. “So we used clamps for the batteries instead. But we didn’t use batteries.”

Any team that used batteries was disqualified from the double-elimination tournament.

Sometimes, though, clouds rolled in, which slowed or stopped the cars.

“Who’s in charge of the weather?,” Pee asked rhetorically during the Science 4 section during a cloud delay.

A prolonged overcast period led Pee to allow batteries to finish a morning class’ tournament.

The costs to provide the supplies and championship trophies total more than $500, but Broun said Walton EMC is happy to cover the difference because of Pee’s involvement and the students’ willingness to participate.

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