Race Revs Up Students to Learn: Model Cars Help Teach Math, Science in Bloomfield Hills District
By Alex P. Kellogg, Detroit Free Press
Feb. 4–Adolescent voices squeaked and squealed, echoing the sounds of their wooden cars racing in the fieldhouse of Bloomfield Hills Middle School.
Most eighth-grade students in Bloomfield Hills and West Hills middle schools sat in classrooms taking exams on Jan. 24. But the youngsters in the Bloomfield Hills Public Schools’ Design and Technology classes got a more hands-on experience for at least one class period.
Roughly 35 students watched as the top 10 students from each class raced CO2-powered vehicles — most of which traveled a 60-foot fishing line track in under 2 seconds. They hit top speeds of about 47 m.p.h. in the final competition between the two middle school classes.
“That’s pretty good for a little piece of wood,” said Jim Veillette, referring to the 6- to 12-inch wood vehicles the eighth-grade students designed. Veillette teaches the design and tech classes at West Hills Middle School, akin to shop classes of ages past.
Veillette and his counterpart and mentor at Bloomfield Hills, Al Birkholz, plan to make the competition, a first for the program, a regular part of each semester. They plan to include students from East Hills, another Bloomfield Hills district middle school, next time, too.
Sylvan Koehler, the top student in the contest, gets the opportunity to race his car at the district-wide competition in Bloomfield Hills April 27. The statewide competition for tech students is run by the Michigan Industrial and Technology Education Society, a group that supports tech teachers and students in the state. It takes place May 16-19 in Battle Creek. Both will include high school participants, too.
The students race for pleasure, though the theme is education. They sketch their car from three directions, make it fit prescribed measurements, carve a prototype out of foam, and even do a slew of math. They measure everything from the speed of the vehicle to the drag coefficient, determining the car’s aerodynamics.
“The hardest part was making all the designs before because you have to do so many measurements,” said Josh Manela, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Bloomfield Hills. Josh, like most kids, painted his car in a splash of hues.
“Our main goal was to get the kids thinking on their own two feet,” said Birkholz, a veteran of three decades at Bloomfield Hills Middle School. “People used to just consider us shop, but we’re so far removed from that now. There’s a big difference these days.”
Birkholz and Veillette both teach the eighth-grade elective as well as other required design and technology classes taken by sixth- and seventh-graders. Their classes are integrated with other math and sciences classes at their respective schools.
Because the racers could potentially take part in a district-wide and statewide competition, they had to meet at least 20 different requirements. Their cars had to be shorter than 200 mm (about 12 inches), heavier than 30 grams and still durable enough for days of preliminary races in the school hallways.
“He was so excited about it,” said Josh’s mother, Elizabeth Manela, a 44-year-old speech pathologist and mother of three from West Bloomfield who joined a handful of other parents for the competition in the school’s backup gymnasium Jan. 25. “I wanted to come down and watch him.”
By the end, Koehler, 14, of Bloomfield Township walked off with the top prize — a two-foot tall marble and faux bronze trophy. Ryan Monahon, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Bloomfield Hills, won a slightly smaller trophy for second place.
“He’s been talking trash all week,” joked Ben Krawitz, a classmate of Koehler. “He knew he was going to win.”
The kids connected hooks on the base of their cars to fishing line. The line was connected to a wood starter panel and finishing line. A slice of metal is dropped and taps the CO2 cartridge. The pressure propels the cars forward.
“There were a few rocky places here and there,” said Birkholz. Some kids’ cars cracked or broke. Fishing lines tattered; wheels spun off. More tape and a few extra sets of pliers could have helped, said Birkholz and Veillette.
The students had to brush up on their “shop” skills — sanding, sawing, cutting and sketching. But they had to display their math skills, too, by calculating the speed and how their cars’ weight and length affected it by drawing up graphs, Birkholz said.
Veillette’s laptop hooked up to the niftier of the two racetracks and calculated the time the cars took to cover the 60-foot distance.
“This type of racing is really big nationally,” said Birkholz. They have aspirations for better stuff in the future.
“We’re hoping the district can buy us a new, nice track,” said Birkholz.
Contact ALEX P. KELLOGG at 248-351-3693 or akellogg@freepress.com.
For more information on the district-wide and statewide competitions, call Al Birkholz at 248-341-6030, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information on the district-wide and statewide competitions, call Al Birkholz at 248-341-6030, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Detroit Free Press
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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