Recycled Racers – that is the project for the EJR Engineering Club.

Students brought in all types of recycled materials – soda cans, plastic bottles and laundry softener containers – they will use to make race cars. Wheels are CDs, bobbins, metal discs and the like. There are plastic straws and wooden dowels that serve as axles for the cars.

 

 

Amy Jenkins and Cheryl Riccardi guide the students as they work collaboratively to create their vehicle in this after-school club, as well as encouraging them to think outside the box.

 

 

Students work together in groups of three and four. In addition to creating a racer and coming up with a goal for their project, the students also created a track for their race. The track had to contain a forest, a desert and a plain. After the students decide on their final design of the car, they will decorate it.

This group consists of fourth-grade students. The fifth-graders completed their engineering session in the fall and the third-graders are next up in spring, all working on the recycled racers project. 

 

 

Engineering Club students use the engineering design process to come up with their goal: ask, imagine, plan, create, improve.

 

 

Next week is the culmination of this seven-week program. The groups will set up their track, put their racer at the top of a ramp and see how far and fast it goes!

Engineering is a big part of the STEAM initiative, incorporating science, technology, engineering, art and math.