Rainbow Racer Solar-Powered Car
Event Location: Orange County STEM Saturday
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
Division: 4-6 (JSS Green)
School: Palmetto Elementary
Team Name: Rainbow Racers
Project Name: Rainbow Racer
Team Size: 4
Palmetto Elementary School
Arissa B. -3rd Grade
Nathan M. – 3rd Grade
Luis- T.- 5th Grade
Alanis G, – 5th Grade
9/10/24: AB, NM, AG
We had a brainstorming session to determine the design we wanted. We looked at last years car to see how it worked. We read through the first part of the manual.
9/17/24: AB, NM, AG
Today we had a lot of Stem Bellwork so we worked only on finishing reading the manual. We made the first marks on our balsa wood to make cuts with the saw.
9/24/24: AB NM, AG, LT
Each person in our group drew their own design so we could determine what cuts we wanted to make into our balsa wood. We looked at all the designs and then Luis decided to combine them into how we wanted it to look.
10/1/24: AB NM, AG, LT
We did not work on the solar car today.
10/8/24: AB NM, AG, LT
We cut the small section out of the bottom of the solar car so that the gears will touch. Everyone on the team added color with Sharpie markers.
10/15/24: AB, AG, LT
Today we attached the wheels to the balsa base using the hard plastic pieces making it like an axel. since the wheels were rubbing the wood because they could slide around we added small sections of straw to keep the wheels far enough from the base.
10/22/24: AB NM, AG, LT
We cut the section out of the front to make our base lighter and faster. We figured out which way the motor was spinning the gear so we could attach it to the base. We used batteries for all of the tests indoors.
10/29/24: AB, AG
We did not work on the solar car today.
11/5/24: AB NM, AG
Today we attached all pieces to the base to run our trials. Glueing the motor down was a little tricky. We realized that the solar panel needed propped up
11/12/24: AB, AG, LT
Today we worked toward transferring all of our notes into the WordPress. We took pictures and measured the solar car to enter the information.
11/19/24: AB NM, AG, LT