Racing with the Sun Activity 3

This video describes how to facilitate Activity 3 of the TechXcite: Discover Engineering Racing with the Sun Module for middle school students. The playlist for this module includes videos to helping instructors facilitate all 4 activities in the module.

This TechXcite: Discover Engineering! module introduces kids to ways in which solar panels may be used to generate electricity through the design of a solar car. Ways in which engineers can design more environmentally friendly cars are a very important challenge in engineering today. While it is unlikely that a car would be powered entirely by solar panels, an electric car with batteries combined with solar charging could become popular in the future. In this module, kids explore how solar panels generate electricity in different lights by measuring the maximum voltage they can create. Then, they apply this knowledge in building and optimizing a small solar car.

The videos in this playlist provide you with the information you need to facilitate these activities with middle school students. Prior to facilitating the module, we recommend you build the projects yourself. Materials lists, instructor's guides, and youth handouts are all available on our website.