LISA M. BOUCHER photo
Young engineers at Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax, all sixth graders, pose with their pasta cars at a competition held at their school.
Learning with pasta
Fairfax students rev up for engineering contest
By LISA M. BOUCHER, Messenger Correspondent
St. Albans Messenger - April 9, 2010 Edition
FAIRFAX —Racers lined up with cars in hand, officials were ready to mark the spot ... a driver took his car to the top of the speedway (a couple of drawers jerry-rigged together with a barely-there sag in the middle) and let it go.
As a multi-disciplinary enrichment unit project that encompassed language arts, math, and science, Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax sixth graders, aided by teacher Al Daniels, took on the role of auto design engineers.
But in this case, the cars were made of pasta, and the goal was only to make one that traveled the farthest.
Vermont Air National Guard and the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and the guard facilities held a statewide competition in the Great Pasta Car Challenge as part of the fourth annual Engineering Day events sponsored on Thursday.
Fairfax students weren't entered this year (see box with local winners), but their preparation for their own in-school contest could make them good candidates for next year.
Each Fairfax sixth grader in the school competition got to test his or her car twice. Some cars traveled as far as 458 centimeters and others didn't make it off the ramp. Many fell in between the two extremes at the Great Pasta Car Challenge.
The learning project included making a design plan for a car following a budget of $20. Students were given a price list with required and optional items including insurance.
Among the required items were: two bamboo skewers (for axles), 47 cents each, glue 98 cents, and four pasta wheels 35 cents each.
Possible auto body parts at additional expense included: lasagna, manicot-ti, macaroni (by far the best deal for adornments), and ziti. An optional paint purchase was limited to $3.74 and insurance $6.11.
Although the students were allowed to design their cars anyway they wanted they had to have a minimum of two axles and four wheels. If they scrapped a design and started over, there needed to be enough money in the budget for the new car.
Students then had to weigh their own and keep track of others in the same weight class. They graphed this information using Microsoft Excel. Each student also had to write a procedural piece explaining the steps taken and materials used to build the car and a persuasive advertisement to sell it.
The final part was graphing the speed and velocity of each car and determining which body styles/pasta shapes work best for speed.
"It was a really good experience - really hands-on. It spread through all the classes and everyone was involved," said Elena Mann-Gow, BFA sixth grader. "It was a good way to make new friends, working with people you don't normally see."
