Students from FAU High School’s Hydro-Nex Gen team show off their battered, but still running, #10 car after the H2AC race in Florida.
What do students get out of H2AC? Learning about alternative energy sources is just the beginning.
Team members build collaboration skills as they make crucial design decisions together.
They improve critical thinking skills as they develop explanations for the problems they encounter.
And they use ingenuity to design functional solutions to repair and maintain their car during the race.
Teachers and parents agree: H2AC is a rewarding experience for everyone involved.
Lindsey Spalding, the teacher and coach of Hagerty High’s Husky Hot Rods team, cites her team’s persistence after multiple crashes destroyed both front wheels and the steering system of their #7 car but the students refused to give up. “The team is definitely die hard,” said Spalding, “We had a blast.”
The students from FAU High, pictured above, found that they could still steer their car without a front right wheel if they altered their driving style, so they ran hours of the race with only three wheels and managed to come in 4th.
This team couldn’t repair their front wheel, so they replaced it with a skid to stay in the race. When their other front wheel broke, they built a new part out of duct tape to keep it attached.
“The team is so excited about next year. They are designing the car parts that broke in Autodesk now to 3D print in order to get our car back in running condition.” -Lindsey Spalding, Hagerty High
Every team faced adversity of some kind. The Warrior Racing team from West Nassau High used the metal spiral from a notebook to fashion a new strut for their car and rode that notebook part to a first place finish.
And the experience of having to improvise solutions to broken parts has teams already anticipating the challenges for next year. What parts might break? How should they be replaced? Can they be improved so they don’t break?
The engineering solutions for H2AC 2016 are already being developed.
Do you have a team that wants to get involved in H2AC? Apply today to join our 2016 racing teams.