Middle school students building race car

PARIS — It sounds like a movie.

A group of seventh and eighth graders come together with a shared vision to build a top-notch race car on a shoestring budget that will compete for glory in a big racing event.

But instead of kicking back with a bucket of popcorn and watching 90 minutes of hammy acting and fast-forward montages, the students of the experiential learning program at Oxford Hills Middle School are rolling up their sleeves to make their vision a reality over the course of the next two years.

"Oftentimes there are kids who desperately need to link their learning to the real world," said SAD 17 Superintendent Rick Colpitts. "It's a deeper learning. They can apply it."

Administrators involved with the project agree that building a race car comes with a whole range of educational opportunities.

The 32 students are divided into four teams, each one of which is faced with a series of tasks related to one aspect of the project.

The public relations crew is learning how to define the project to the community at large. The finance group is estimating costs and adapting an overall budget to the financial realities the project is facing. The web design and history team is creating a website that will explore, among other things, the history of local racing.

And then, of course, the building crew is actually doing the hands-on engineering that will ultimately make the car become a reality.

"That was the most popular group," said Kyle Morey, a math teacher who has been heavily involved with the project. "What kid wouldn't want to start working with all these power tools?"

"Shouldn't all groups of kids have this opportunity?" asked Colpitts.

Crystal Page, a student with the project, said that the students began by coming up with their own competing designs of what the car should look like.

"Everyone on the team has designed a car, but only one was chosen," she reported.

Morey and Pat Carson, a SAD 17 administrator who has also helped get the project going, said that the educational opportunities are almost limitless.

Carson has helped some of the students to write grant proposals.

"They've gotten an $1,800 grant from the Maine Commission for Community Service," said Carson. "For them, writing has a real relevance, and being able to write a persuasive essay isn't just something for school."

Other students are filming and documenting the process, and developing presentations based on the information.

Last year, said Colpitts, the students created a robot that could help eradicate invasive milfoil plants from the waterways at the University of Maine 4-H Camp and Learning Center at Bryant Pond.

"For milfoil eradication they had to learn how to build a robot, figure out how to keep the water out of the electronic components," said Colpitts. "It got into graphing and algebraic equations. They're applying them [academic concepts] to things that they think are fun."

Carson said that the project, which has motivated students to want to come to school, deserved partial credit for an increase in attendance and academic grades over the last year.

"They're really excited about it," said Morey, noting that the students were just about to begin hands-on building. "They're really antsy about wanting to get going."

Morey said that he's been interested in race cars since he got out of high school in the 1980s.  He has raced cars, and built cars, so when the idea of a class project centered around a race car came up, he knew that his expertise could be put to good use.

"We're hoping that by the end of this school year we'll have the full chassis built, as well as hanging the body," said Morey. "We're going to have to burn the midnight oil to get this done."

The chassis will be built in a series of sessions at Race Basics, a shop that operates Crazy Horse Racing in Paris.

"It's quite the facility there," said Morey. "Thanks to their generosity, this program is a lot more doable."

If building a race car sounds like an expensive science project, that's because it is. But the class instructors stressed that the money won't come out of the school's general fund.

"We plan on raising $20,000 to build the race car," said Page.

The project's crowning moment will come in about 18 months.

"In the summer of 2013, when the current 7th graders will have graduated, we hope to have it all ready to go and race in the 2013 Oxford 250," said Morey. "We'll be trying to locate a driver that we'd really like to see drive the car.  They'd really like to see a Sprint Cup driver, but we'll see what is feasible."

"You can be sure that you'll have eager kids waiting on the sidelines watching their race car perform," said Colpitts.

In the meantime, said Page, the project has yet another benefit for the students who participate – they may not be able to drive it, but that doesn't mean it won't carry them across a finish line.

"We're building the race car to keep us motivated to aspire higher, graduate from high school, and hopefully go to college."