Sunshine Surfers
Sunshine Surfers
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0983-1024x768.jpg)
Introduction to your car and team
Organization Name
Sumter STEM 4-H – Sumter County, FL.
Team
Addie C – 5th Grade, Lily T – 4th Grade, Danny C- 3rd Grade, Finn T – 3rd Grade
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sunshinesurferteampicture-1024x576.png)
Photo Gallery
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0976-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0977-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0978-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0979-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0980-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0981-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0982-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0983-1024x768.jpg)
Project Log
Date | Task | Time Spent | Team Members | Obstacles Faced | Modifications to car |
3/11/2024 | First Meeting. Chose our team. | 1 Hour | AC, DC, LT, FT | We had to choose our teams and come up with an idea. | |
3/15/2024 | We built our chassis and figured out the gear ratio. | 2 Hours | AC, LT, FT | We tried to use bigger wheels but they were too heavy for the motor. Then we chose a bigger gear ratio (6:1) but the gear touched the ground. Ended with a general idea for the car for the next meeting | Used a smaller gear ratio and chose to use the kit wheels |
3/18/2024 | Built our car | 4 Hours | AC, DC, LT, FT | Cut the chassis into a rounded front shape for aerodynamics. Problem 1: Wheels were touching the wood Problem 2: Spacers too far inside the wheels. The car wobbled and won’t drive straight. Problem 3: Car runs but it is pulling left. Car only goes a few feet then curves. Problem 4: The gears are not touching tight enough, causing slippage. | We ended up rebuilding our entire car with a new kit. The materials used were: Balsa wood, straws, styrofoam cup, kcup, and pitsco solar car kit. |
3/21/2024 | Painting the car | 2 Hours | AC, DC, LT, FT | Painting around the motor and inside the cup. Painting the legos, because it needed a lot of coats of paint. | Painted yellow surf board with teal and green stripe. We attached solar panel in prep for trials. |
3/21/2024 | Solar Time Trials – We build a solar car course to test out the car. | 1 Hour | AC, DC, LT, FT | We completed all time trials today. First the car went backwards. We swapped the wires on the motor. The clip fell off the wire and had to get fixed. Lastly, the front of the car had to get fixed. | We had to reglue the front and the lego supports. |
3/25/2024 | Fixed some of the broken pieces on our car and built our website. Also filmed interviews and took photos of our car. | 3 Hours | AC, DC, LT, FT | Today we had to fix some broken and weak parts on our car. Once that was finished we took photos of our car for the website. We also did an interview about our car. Ms. Jenna helped us with our website and edited our interview video with us. | We had to replace the styrofoam cup on our car to a plastic one. The styrofoam cup broke after our trials last week and wasn’t strong enough to hold the solar panel up. |
Car Drawings
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sunshinesurfersdrawing1-1-768x1024.jpg)
![](https://www.energywhiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sunshinesurfersdrawing2-1-768x1024.jpg)
Car Specifications
Length of Car | 29 cm |
Width w/wheels | 14.5 cm |
Width of Solar Panel | 12.5 cm |
Length of Solar Panel | 26.5 cm |
Height | 12.5 cm |
Weight | 243 g |
Back Wheel Size | 4 cm |
Front Wheel Size | 3.5 cm |
Gear Ratio | 1:4 or 10:40 |
Total Cost of Car: | $49 |
Cost of Car and Components
Items Purchased | Cost |
Solar Car Kit | $48 |
Battery Pack | $1 |
Straws | Donated |
K-Cup | Donated |
Foam Cup | Donated |
Paint | Donated |
Legos | Donated |
Hot Glue | Donated |
Trials
Solar Panel Time Trials
Trial | Time | Distance | Speed | Conditions | Comments |
1 | DNR | 0 | 0 | Sunny | Went backwards |
2 | DNR | 0 | 0 | Sunny | Didn’t run. The clamp came off the wire |
3 | 7:36 | 20m | 2.72 | Sunny | The eye hook got loose. We had to reglue it. |
4 | 7:03 | 20m | 2.84 | Sunny | |
5 | 8:14 | 20m | 2.46 | Sunny | |
6 | 7:31 | 20m | 2.74 | Sunny |
Battery Panel Time Trials
Trial | Time | Distance | Speed | Conditions | Comments |
1 | 17:56 | 20m | 1.14 | Sunny | The batteries were older. We swapped the batteries to fresh ones |
2 | 7.09 | 20m | 2.82 | Sunny | New batteries were much faster. Afterwards, we had to reglue the front of the car and fix the supports. |
Project Reflection
Reflection
We would like to thank our moms for bringing us to practice each week. Thank you to Ms. Jenna for helping us edit the interview, and Mr. Tom (Danny’s dad) for soldiering the clips to our panel and our battery pack.
Very cute & nice video too.