Lakeview’s Engineering classes participate in a model car race
Each year, Lakeview High School’s advanced engineering class, taught by Jolaine Price, takes on a project where they will design and create their own functioning model cars. The class is given about 2 months, from February to May, to complete their cars.
The requirements for the project are simple: the car must be at maximum the size of a shoe box and it must be able to move.
Each of the eight students in the class will individually design a car using a drafting program called NX. NX allows the students to create a design and layout that can then be printed off of one of the 3D printers housed in the
engineering classroom.
After the students have created the skeleton of their car, they add the electronics that will allow the vehicle to move. Each student needs to add things like batteries, a motor, tires, and switches. The students will need to use a complex understanding
of engineering to add these components.
Once the students have their final products, they will race them in the hallway of Lakeview High School, just outside of the engineering classroom.
Students who have been in the Engineering class in past years, and now have
Price for another class, have been working to design medals for each of the engineering students to receive after they complete the race. The medals will also be 3D printed and laser cut; so by the end of this project, students will have a fun souvenir to remember their time in Price’s engineering class.
Each year there are various levels of success with the creation of the cars.
Price explained, “Sometimes we get some really good model cars, but there’s always a few that don’t work out.”
Whether they win the race or not, students will gain valuable experience from this project that will help them if they choose to pursue a future engineering career.