Solar Speeder

Ozias N. and Wesley V. 5th graders at Ocean Breeze ES.

1/22- Started to build the car. 3 hours spent. It was hard to get the gears right so the wheels could work.

1/29- Put the solar panel on. 3 hours spent. Started going but stopped really quickly. Switched it to back wheel drive (we thought it would work better).

2/26- Started testing how fast it was (1.19 seconds to travel one meter). 3 hours spent. The solar panel was touching the wheel.

3/4- Changed the gear ratio. 1 hour spent. Could not test it because we did not have enough time.

3/18- finished the gear ratio. 1 hour spent. Had to use the battery because the sun was blocked. Wheels weren’t working and we had to change the gear and glue on the wheels.

The car is 13 1/2 inches long and 6 1/2 inches wide at the wheels. It is over 200grams (our scale doesn’t go higher). the front tires are 1 1/4 inches in diameter, the back are 1 1/2 inches. the gears are 20:40 or 1:2 with the one on the motor with 20 teeth and on the axel is 40 teeth.

Items were from the purchased kit or scraps from the classroom. and gorilla tape.