Green Lightning Strikes Back

Event Year: 2024
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
Division: 4-6 (JSS Green)
School: Suntree Elementary
Team Name: Green Lightning Strikes Back
Project Name: Dark lightning II
Team Size: 3

Car name- Dark Lightning II, Names of builders- Theo C, Rogan W, and Brady J, and all are in 6th grade at Suntree Elementary

February 26- attendance= Brady, Theo, and Rogan. This week, we discussed what we wanted the car to do. We decided that it needed to have an eyelet, a place that can hold a ping pong ball, a battery holder, and maximum dimensions of width: 30 cm, length: 60 cm, and a height of 30 cm. we also are brainstorming whether to use balsa wood or foam board for our base/chassis and are looking at the wheels we have been provided with and we think we can use the back wheels, but during putting the rubber bands on the back wheels one of the rubber bands broke so we are debating whether to just use the wheels without the tires (rubber bands) or to find new wheels or recycle older ones from our past (last year’s) car Dark Lightning I. We have also decided to name our team “Green Lightning Strikes Back” after our team name last year “Green Lightning”. Time used= 60 min.

March 4- attendance= Brady, Theo, and Rogan. On March 4, we decided to use the provided back wheels but we’ll use our own front wheels. We also decided to use foam board as a chassis because it was light and easy to manipulate. We also began to cut out the size of foam board we needed. after that was done we started to put the gears on their places on both the axle and motor so that they will connect to each other and move the car forward instead of not being able to connect and not moving the car at all. Time used= 60 min.

March 11- attendance= Brady, Theo, and Rogan. We have now named our new car Dark Lightning II after our first car we made. We also are looking into other front wheel choices ( Legos, older wheels, or any other things) we also tested the solar panel to make sure it worked. We also are looking for alligator clips or any other type of things to keep our working motor and working solar panel attached to one and other so that the wires let them work together to move our car forward instead of backwards. Time used= 60 min.

March 18- attendance= Brady, Theo, and Rogan. We are putting our car together. The gears are not connecting right. We have had a small argument about using older wheels but older wheels won out with me(Brady) and Rogan on old wheels and Theo on other wheels. We have decided to have an extra meeting on Wednesday to rebuild the car into a better one because this one is falling apart! We have decided to meet at Theo’s house to rebuild the new car in a “non ripped fashion” and make it “look cooler” according to Theo. Time used= 90 min.

March 20- attendance= Brady, Theo, and Rogan. We have made our new car’s wheels by testing Dark Lightning I’s wheels on our new car. Also the car is complete with a Thermoplastic Polyurethane product made by Theo. This piece will allow us to angle our solar panel best to the sun using four (4) different strings and eyelets. Thermoplastic Polyurethane is also called TPU and is a type of hygroscopic plastic that can be made in a three-dimensional (3-D) printer and is hard yet bendy and this one is a polyester based made TPU instead of polyether based which makes it better for mechanical properties then polyether based TPU. Time used= 90 min.

March 24- attendance= Brady. I have gone to ask for alligator clips so that my team would be ready to do the time trials on the 1st of April. Although I wasn’t able to actually get said alligator clips I was able to get them to bring them to our next meeting on the 1st. Time used= 10 min.

April 1- attendance=Brady, Theo, and Rogan We have taken the video and time trials done with times of 8.2, 8.8, and 8.7. Also the total cost was $10 length=31 cm width= 6 cm height= 10. 1/2 cm weight= 289 g wheel size= 3 cm diameter gear ratio= 1 cm motor gear too 3 1/5 . Time used= 90 min.