Students from La Center Middle School showed their engineering talent at Clark Public Utilities (CPU) Solar Car Challenge, Saturday, March 9, at Hudson Bay’s High School in Vancouver.
Students from across Clark County were given five weeks to build a solar-powered vehicle from kits provided by CPU. During the event, teams presented their vehicles and work to a group of judges and raced in a tournament to find the fastest solar-powered car in Clark County.
More than 85 teams of Clark County elementary, middle and high school students competed after months of design, engineering and innovations, according to a CPU press release.
“The Solar Car Challenge is a tournament-style event where students combine the principles of renewable energy, engineering and creative design into a race car of their own creation,” said Amber Hall, education program specialist at Clark Public Utilities, in the release. “Every car is the product of months of collaboration, technical education and trial and error. Saturday’s event is as much a race as it is a celebration of all the work they’ve done.”
La Center Middle School grade seven students Ashur Kitzerow and Jack Wooten began working on their vehicle in late January. Wooten said they landed on the name “Team Barbie” because of the vehicle’s color scheme.
“We [chose] ‘The Barbies’ because the only wheels they had that were roughly this size were pink wheels, and we thought it’d be funny to be ‘The Barbies,’ ” Wooten said.
Wooten’s mother designed the team’s shirts to add to the theme, embroidering “Team Barbie” on the back. The duo’s project incorporated their talents in design and included fun facts about solar energy.
Kitzerow and Wooten’s car used a solar panel to power its motor. The team used balsa wood as a base because it was a lighter material. To reduce friction, the car used larger wheels on the front to keep its wires from scraping the floor. Kitzerow said that the team lost a day of work re-gluing the wheels during the building process and switched to tape to hold the wheel to the axle.
“One challenge was the wheels. They were really annoying, and we had to remove them multiple times,” Kitzerow said.
Kitzerow’s favorite part of the process was building the car’s circuitry. The team had to creatively place wires due to the limited amount of space on the car’s base. Powering the car using solar energy was a challenging but rewarding experience for Team Barbie.
La Center Middle School teacher Kristy Schneider worked with Team Barbie and two other La Center Middle School teams, “The Estrellas” and “L.A.,” during the building period. Schneider said that La Center’s students did well despite sick days and icy conditions in January.
“This offers a challenge for kids who don’t like to participate in sports,” Schneider said. “It’s a great avenue for them.”
Contenders were ranked and received trophies based on three criteria: their placement in the tournament, their presentation before judges and a combination of the two. La Center’s teams did not make the top three for the competition, but Team Barbie brought the Judge’s Choice trophy home. The trophy was awarded to the team for their creative methods of design and presentation. Kitzerow and Wooten were excited to receive the honor after weeks of hard work.
“We’re just happy we made it past the first round,” Kitzerow said.
