Sunshine Surfers

Event Year: 2024
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
Division: 4-6 (JSS Green)
School: Sumter STEM 4H
Team Name: Sunshine Surfers
Project Name: Sunshine Surfers
Team Size: 4

Sunshine Surfers

Introduction to your car and team

Organization Name

Sumter STEM 4-H – Sumter County, FL.

Team

Addie C – 5th Grade, Lily T – 4th Grade, Danny C- 3rd Grade, Finn T – 3rd Grade

Photo Gallery

Project Log

DateTaskTime SpentTeam MembersObstacles FacedModifications to car
3/11/2024First Meeting. Chose our team.1 HourAC, DC, LT, FTWe had to choose our teams and come up with an idea.
3/15/2024We built our chassis and figured out the gear ratio.2 HoursAC, LT, FTWe tried to use bigger wheels but they were too heavy for the motor. Then we chose a bigger gear ratio (6:1) but the gear touched the ground. Ended with a general idea for the car for the next meetingUsed a smaller gear ratio and chose to use the kit wheels
3/18/2024Built our car4 HoursAC, DC, LT, FTCut the chassis into a rounded front shape for aerodynamics.
Problem 1: Wheels were touching the wood
Problem 2: Spacers too far inside the wheels. The car wobbled and won’t drive straight.
Problem 3: Car runs but it is pulling left. Car only goes a few feet then curves.
Problem 4: The gears are not touching tight enough, causing slippage.
We ended up rebuilding our entire car with a new kit. The materials used were: Balsa wood, straws, styrofoam cup, kcup, and pitsco solar car kit.
3/21/2024Painting the car2 HoursAC, DC, LT, FTPainting around the motor and inside the cup. Painting the legos, because it needed a lot of coats of paint. Painted yellow surf board with teal and green stripe.
We attached solar panel in prep for trials.
3/21/2024Solar Time Trials – We build a solar car course to test out the car. 1 HourAC, DC, LT, FTWe completed all time trials today. First the car went backwards. We swapped the wires on the motor. The clip fell off the wire and had to get fixed. Lastly, the front of the car had to get fixed.We had to reglue the front and the lego supports.
3/25/2024Fixed some of the broken pieces on our car and built our website. Also filmed interviews and took photos of our car. 3 HoursAC, DC, LT, FTToday we had to fix some broken and weak parts on our car. Once that was finished we took photos of our car for the website. We also did an interview about our car. Ms. Jenna helped us with our website and edited our interview video with us. We had to replace the styrofoam cup on our car to a plastic one. The styrofoam cup broke after our trials last week and wasn’t strong enough to hold the solar panel up.
Project Log

Car Drawings

Car Specifications

Length of Car29 cm
Width w/wheels14.5 cm
Width of Solar Panel12.5 cm
Length of Solar Panel26.5 cm
Height12.5 cm
Weight243 g
Back Wheel Size4 cm
Front Wheel Size3.5 cm
Gear Ratio1:4 or 10:40
Total Cost of Car:$49

Cost of Car and Components

Items PurchasedCost
Solar Car Kit$48
Battery Pack$1
StrawsDonated
K-CupDonated
Foam CupDonated
PaintDonated
LegosDonated
Hot GlueDonated

Trials

Solar Panel Time Trials

TrialTimeDistanceSpeedConditionsComments
1DNR00SunnyWent backwards
2DNR00SunnyDidn’t run. The clamp came off the wire
37:3620m2.72SunnyThe eye hook got loose. We had to reglue it.
47:0320m2.84Sunny
58:1420m2.46Sunny
67:3120m2.74Sunny

Battery Panel Time Trials

TrialTimeDistanceSpeedConditionsComments
117:5620m1.14SunnyThe batteries were older. We swapped the batteries to fresh ones
27.0920m2.82SunnyNew batteries were much faster. Afterwards, we had to reglue the front of the car and fix the supports.

Project Reflection

Reflection

We would like to thank our moms for bringing us to practice each week. Thank you to Ms. Jenna for helping us edit the interview, and Mr. Tom (Danny’s dad) for soldiering the clips to our panel and our battery pack.

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