#1 ZOOM

By tipping the solar panel we get much more power. By getting more power the solar car moves faster. The wheels also make a big difference. Ours has big teeth so it can drive over the smallest rock to someone’s hand. It can also go uphill.

We think that the gear drive is much slower than the belt drive, yet the gear drive is much more steady. With the belt drive the rubber band could slip so we decided to use the gear drive. We noticed that the cars that used belt drive are either super slow or super fast. We went through at least 5 chassis. It got kind of annoying at the end. But we got it to work anyway. We know that our solar car won’t win the race but we are sure that it will not stop in the middle of the race track (some other people’s cars can’t drive over rocks.)

According to our car “ slow and steady wins the race.”

Car #2 Marcko

Marcko is our Solar car. We have learned alot about solar energy in he making of Marcko. Solar energy is the most efficient energy, but in most places there isn't enough sunlight to supply enough energy.

How solar energy works with our car: The sunlight will go into the solar cells on the solar panel, and is then processed into a form of energy called solar power. The solar power will then travel through the wires into the motor, causing motor to spin. The motor will spin the thing that the rubber band is on, which is connected to another thing, that is connected to the axle of the wheel. The wheels will then spin, making Marcko move, and Marcko moves very fast!

Our solar car design: Our chassis (the base of the car) is made out of balsa wood (a very light wood, we like to call it styrofoam wood). Glued onto the bottom of the wood are plastic semicircles with holes in it. In the holes are our axles. On the axles are the wheels. The solar panels are on copper wires, which can bend to face the sun. This is a huge advantage because we are able to get alot of the suns rays.

At first we had the same chassis with really wide wheels. But to reduce weight, we cut them in half. Then we switched the back wheels with smaller wheels, that have a rubber ring around them. But the motor span the wrong way, so we switched the way the car would move, making the smaller wheels in the front, and the larger wheels behind.

The making of Marcko was alot of fun, and we had a great experience, although it did involve alot of hard work and using our noggins(brains). Go Marcko, go go, go Marcko!

#3 The Camp

#4 The Triangle

Car #5 Cheese Mobile

In the beginning we learned a lot about solar cells, and did experiments. Nearing our due date, we abandoned that work and worked only on our solar cars. We also learned a lot about aerodynamic designing. If the car is slanted (shorted at the front, taller at the back) then it will move without much wind resistance. At first, our car was too heavy, so we needed to come up with a design to make it lighter; our car soon changed from “Mexican Ice-Cream, the ice cream truck” to the styrofoam “Cheese Mobile”! Afterwards we learned that by just changing the gear ratio we can make our car move faster and/or stronger.

Studying photovoltaics and experimenting was kind of boring. When we actually started designing and building the car it was very fun. When our car didn’t work we worried that we wouldn’t finish an other car in time. We did though, but when the new design was finished, it didn’t work...or so we thought! Then we just tilted the solar panels towards the sun and...It worked! We then rejoiced.

We had a good time learning, and think every MAC class should learn about and design solar cars.

We learned how to make a solar car. Corrugated cardboard is very good because you can stick the skewer through the little holes. We also found out how photovoltaic cells can be used to power a car (though it’s very inefficient.) We learned about Power, Voltage and Current and we were able to describe them. 46 degrees is the best angle for catching the sunlight. We also learned that wiring the solar panels in a series rather then parallel circuit works better because it doubles power in a way.

We learned a DC (direct current), is a simple circuit like they use in a flash light and other things. cardboard was a very light and flexible material to use in our body and our wheels were light weight. We went through a couple designs before we got this one and they included, a four wheel design with one solar panel, the next was a four wheel design with two solar panels. Our last design was a three wheel car with one solar panel and it worked. the body is light weight and runs slowly but steadily.     How we felt about doing the solar car:

Conor: I was encouraged at the start because we were the first group that succeeded in making the solar car work. But towards the end, the competition was getting better and our car hadn’t changed much. Unless we don’t get our car faster then it is, we won’t win the race.

Adam:. I didn’t have a hole lot of fun with this project. I really wanted it to be over . Some parts were ok but i did not enjoy it for the most part. i don’t think we need to win the race or change the car because it moves and thetas all that we were supposed to do.

All in all we both learned a lot in this project.

#8 Styrofoam

We learned that solar energy is not very powerful. The voltage and amperage provided by two solar panels was barely enough to move a light styrofoam car (with wheels). We had to make the tough decision of how many solar panels to use, because although an extra solar panel provides more power, it also adds weight to the car, which slows it down. We had to do lots of experimenting before we decided to go with the extra power.    

The car design was also important, mostly because of the limited capacity of power provided. At first, our car was made of metal, but we quickly realised that that was much to heavy. We changed the design to cardboard, but it still didn’t work too well. Eventually, we changed to styrofoam, and eventually, with lots more experimenting, we got the car moving (just in time for the due date). It still didn’t move very fast, so we switched the wheels for lighter ones.  In general, our project was quite frustrating. It broke down several times, and it was difficult to get the car moving. After lots of modifications, we finally got the car finished. Quote Nils: “We rejoiced”. 

Overall, this project was hard work, but we learned a lot from it.

#9 Sunami

Doing this project, we learned about voltage, power, and current. The Photovoltaic cells turn the sun’s rays into electricity. It helped us learn to design a car. We had to find a light weight chassis, make it into the right shape, find a good drive, wheels, and then evenly balance the car. At first we were going to use a chassis made of Knex but it proved to be much too heavy and the solar panels and motor weren’t strong enough to move it. We found some good light weight materials were balsa wood, cardboard, and styrofoam. We found that the best drive was a direct drive, because all the motor’s force is transfored into the wheel, where with a gear, belt, or friction drive some of the force gets lost before the axle spins.

This project was very frusterating, especially when we tried to find a good drive for a good chassis. Some of it was fun, but mostly frusterating and boring. We did learn alot, though. We thought it was going to be fun and interesting, but we were wrong.

In closing this project was educational and had some interesting things in it even though sometimes it didn’t seem like it.

#12 The KYLO

Our car design during this project has changed a few times . We changed our chassis from styrofoam to, balsa wood which would not crumble and was a bit lighter. We also had to make it the right size and shape so that it would run better we also decided to make it aerodynamic (though it wouldn’t really help since it is running less than a mile per hr) .A problem that occurred with our chassis was that it split in half , but nothing a little tape & glue can’t fix.     We have our solar panels on a tilt so that it can catch even more sun rays than if it was flat,and on the solar panels we have reflectors in case the sun is in another direction. We decided on a 3- wheel design and for our transmission we decided on a drive belt .     

We have learned allot during this experience its not every day that you get to build a working solar car model in elementary grades. all of the things that we’ve written about are only some of the things that we have learned . Decisions are important in building a solar car, and sacrifices have to be made like an example would be 2 solar panels instead of 1 because of how heavy 2 would be it might go slower but how much power it gives would make up for it.     It looks easy but trust us it was HARD!! We are now happy with our design and we are glad that it is over with we’re probably not going to win but at least we have a working model !!!!!!!!!