EcoSharks AM 🦈
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
Division: 4-6 (JSS Green)
School: Osceola Science Charter School
Team Name: EcoSharks AM
Project Name: EcoSharks
Team Size: 2
Team Members: Aleksey B. 5th grade / Mason C. 5th grade
Coordinator: Mrs. Amy Trujillo
We are Aleksey and Mason from Osceola Science Charter School. We are classmates and love being in SECME Club together. We are very excited to participate in Energy Whiz competition and build our first Solar Car together. Out project is called EcoSharks AM – Shark stands for fierceness and determination, also it’s an emblem of our OSCS school and we want to represent our awesome school. ECO – because we care about our environment, solar panels are ECO friendly and we used materials that are upcycled and biodegradable. Please watch our intro video bellow
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cHoPfguDfKY082ZnGrQ_j111fVgGj1H8/view?usp=drivesdk
Design Documentation
Photos of the car from different angles
Finished Car Specifications:
Car size: Height – 27 1/2 cm. Width – 52 cm. Length – 28 cm
Car Weight – 215 g
Wheel size – 3.5 cm
Gear ratio – 13 1/2 cm
List of Components Used and their Cost
| Material | Cost | New /Reused /Recycled |
| Pitsco kit (1 motor + 3PV panel) | $ 0.00 | new |
| 2 AA batteries | $ 0.00 | new (had at home) |
| Battery holder | $ 4.00 | new |
| Balsa wood | $ 4.00 | new |
| LEGO wheels | $ 0.00 | reused |
| on/off switch | $ 6.00 | new |
| Velcro | $ 0.00 | new (left over from the previous project) |
| Epoxoy Glue | $ 6.00 | new |
| passenger | $ 0.00 | reused (had at home) |
| Construction paper | $ 0.00 | new (had at home) |
| Torch/Lighter | $ 0.00 | reused |
| Heat shrink tubes | $ 0.00 | new (daddy had in garage) |
| 2 Bearings | $ 0.00 | reused |
| Eyelet | $0.00 | reused |
| Total | $ 20.00 |
Project Log and Team Work
Building our Solar car was lots of fun. We loved working on our project together not only during the SECME club time (every Wednesday) , but also gathered together at the park after school and on our spring break.
Date March 10th: Brainstormed ideas, learned the rules and details of the competition. Discussed the materials we want to use for the project.
Time spent: 1 hour
Both teammates are present
First we decided to build a 4 wheeler using plywood and LEGO pieces. We counted how many LEGO pieces we need to find at home, chose the wheels and measured the size of the plywood we needed to build our solar car.
Date March 15th: gathered the materials we thought would be useful, did the measurements, sorted our the wheels and LEGO pieces. Drew the model of the car we wanted. Chose the name and mission of our team, and created the logo.
Time spent: 2 hours
Both teammates are present
The First Model of the Car
During the spring break we gathered together at the park to build our car with plywood and LEGO wheels and other LEGO parts as we planned. Aleksey’s father cut the plywood to the size we wanted. Mason’s dad gave us suggestions and watched if we followed the safety rules. It was fun building. We were so excited to try our solar car. But unfortunately, when we tested it barely moved. We figured it was because the materials and wheels were too heavy for the motor to push the wheels. After weighing the car, it was 325 gr. We were so disappointed. But didn’t give up!
Date March 20th
Time spent: 3 hours
Both teammates are present
This is the sketch of our original 4 wheel model that we built
Engineering, Work Process and Failure
The Second Model of the Car
To build the second car we had to do some research. This time we chose all the details carefully. We used Balsa wood, as we learned it is very light and grows very fast, so it is an ECO-friendly material. Also we decided to make a 3 wheeler in order to make a lighter and faster car. We upcycled 2 wheels from the toy car Mason had at home and used a sprocket attached to the motor as the 3rd wheel. This time we were more thoughtful and tried to make the car as small and light as we could. Unfortunately it became very cloudy and was about to rain buy the time we finished building. So we didn’t have enough Solar Energy to move the car. We used batteries. SUCCESS! The car moved so much faster this time but we felt like it wasn’t as fast as we wanted. So we changed the wheels to upcycled LEGO Wheels that Aleksey brought.
Date March 30th
Time spent: 2.5 hours
Both teammates are present
This is the sketch of our second car – 3 wheeler.
Engineering and Work process
This time the car turned out to be very light – 214 gr! We hope this will make it super fast.
Vehicle Performance Tests
The most exciting part was to Test our car models. Not everything worked from the first time, so we did a few adjustments, and finally made the best version of our Solar car! We tested our car on Basketball and Baseball courts without monofilament line. We didn’t have it. There are 2 videos from our test drives down bellow.
Here is the link to our final Test4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cdNmecKUcXQ1OwUsW1dYqB_iPleKJoZw/view?usp=drivesdk
Link to Test 3 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cfIS2wE2eb5h9YO0YBcweDbfeSEBth9v/view?usp=drivesdk
| Vehicle info | Test 1 | Test 2 | Test 3 | Test 4 |
| Battery or solar power | solar | battery | solar | solar |
| weather | sunny | cloudy | sunny | sunny |
| Date and time | 3/20/25 @ 3:00 pm | 3/30/25 @ 5:00 pm | 4/01/25 @ 4:00 pm | 04/06/25 @ 1.00 pm |
| Distance traveled | 50 cm | 5 meters | 10 meters | 10 meters |
| Time elapsed | 3 sec | 10 sec | 17 sec | 13 sec |
| Speed (distance decided by time) | 16.6 cm/sec | 0.5 m/s | 0.58 m/s | 0.77 m/s |
| Comments on performance | The car details were too heavy for the kit motor. 325 gr | Successful test. But it was very cloudy that day, so we had to use batteries. We also thought that the car still wasn’t moving fast enough so we changed the toy wheels to LEGO wheels | The car was moving very fast. But the problem was that it was moving in circles | The car was light and was moving very fast when the sun wasn’t behind the clouds. It moved much straighter even without monofilament |
| Improvement ideas | Built a lighter version of the car | Changed the wheels and the axel | Extended the axel and spread the wheels a little wider | We’ll try to use monofilament for the next trial test |
Design and the Process of Creating it
Here is our Shark inspired car and the process of designing it.
We wanted to use light and ECO-friendly materials for our design. So we used the construction paper and paper glue to create our Shark design – cut out the fins, tail, head fin, head, teeth and eyes. We were very happy with the way our Solar car turned out, and really wanted to ride it. So we did!!! The LEGO mini figures with our pictures can ride and it seems like they are enjoying it!
Conclusion
Designing and building the Solar Car was very interesting and educational process. We learned so much about energy, engineering, Eco-friendly materials, and team work. We learned about the power of the Sun and that it can produce so much energy and move the cars. And how much the lack of it can give us trouble during the test drive. We found out that Engineering is so much fun, and that not everything we planned can work right away. That there can be mistakes and we need to learn from our mistakes and never give up. It was exciting to look for different material ideas and get creative, so we could keep our project safe for the environment. And, of course, we practiced our Team Work and loved working together. We learned to listen to each other’s ideas and respect each other.
Wow ! Congratulations for this amazing job ! You have a lot of imagination and dedication… Good luck in your competition!
Great and amazing executed job! Congratulations for the team work and creativity of the project. Looking to see more.
Great job boys! What a fun and educational project. Good luck on your competition! Go ECOSHARKS!!!
Great team, great project!! Would love to see how it runs. Good luck to you!!
Excellent work! A lot of hard work went into your project and you can tell from looking at the videos! Great job team!
How do you have all this imagenaison.
I love how you both had fun and learned and it is very creative of you both to that ECO friendly project!!
🫶 🫶🫶🫶
I’m so proud of how you work on this together! Excellent work you guys! Teamwork makes a dreamwork!
I love this project
hope you win good luck
Aleskey and Mason I love the design, and you put it as a shark for OSCS. And good luck to you guys!
Nice thats so cool and its also funny how you put the picture of your faces on them in a good way though
Me too! It was cool and cute!
very good Aleksey and Mason!! keep up the good work. its very good love the design.👍👍
hi mason and aleskey it was super cool
This is a wonderful project! How long did this take Mason? Also very creative tools and art work. You guys managed to find the most creative way to keep the ecosystem safe and use little material at the same time! Great work! Amazing machine! You even had its logo!!!
I am proud of you mason and Aleksey and Mason you lucky you can use a drill
It is very cool and Aleksey is awesome And Mason is a ceeool dude with a drill
This is really good!😄😄Keep up the great work!👌👌👍👍👏👏
this is so good
Great job live the creativity, keep up the good work cant wait for the next one!
I love how you wrote the whole entire process! Amazing idea to conserve energy with a solar powered engine! Amazing job Aleksey and Mason!!!!! Good luck on the competition! But don’t worry, you don’t need any! You guys will do AMAZING!! Awesome job on it! Keep going with it, you’ll make an even better model on the next one!
very good. super good
Hi, Mason and Aleskey I love the design for the shark It’s very functional and not only is the engineering in this is amazing but it is very creative!
You guys did a really good job Aleksey and Mason! Keep up the good work. That was a really cool design and creativity!
I love the way that you guys put your faces on the lego people.
I love how you guys worked together to make this very cute shark. It’s so cool that you can make such a cool car for only $ 20 and you reuse most items which makes it more eco-friendly.
Very good job! I have no issues, but rather would like to see it in-person. The wheels are an interesting choice and wonder how well they’ll hold up against other styles. Do you think the front being flat will hinder the aerodynamics? Might want to test that out before race day. Good luck!
Very creative and cool design along with great troubleshooting skills. Don’t overlook the passenger/payload (ping-pong ball)