Race Day 2010-11

The 7th Annual Parkside JSS Race this year was a wonderful success! Nearly 100 cars raced. Nearly 300 students participated.

A great sense of thanks and gratitude goes out to Cris Kennedy and PTA parents who helped enormously on this day. Thanks for manning the lanes to report times and help take cars on and off the lines. Thank you Principal Mark Bregar. It's always a fine job of MC'ing you do for this event.

Many thanks go out also to Carol Winter and John Seljan. Your hours of volunteerism each year helping with students during the construction and testing stage mostly go unnoticed. I honor your vim and vitality. Drew Hocevar - lending your scroll saws allows a dimension to the building process. Thank you.

Thanks to all the parents, administrators, former students, high school students, etc. for coming to watch this great event! Your support is and has been appreciated. Thanks also to the parents that made cars. There were three this year. The winner was Mr. Khan, father of Maryam Khan.

Thanks to all the vendors this year that made it. We feel that sharing your expertise and products with students is vitally important. Thanks to John Lance Ford, Pat O'Brian Chevy, Sister Helen Ann for bringing your CNG car, Al Straus for lending us your Meyer's motors all electric vehicle, to Peter Thomas from Hawkins school in Lyndhurst for lending us a generator bike; thanks to Donny Davis from LEEDco for sharing the news about the wind generators going up on the lake that your company is helping with; thanks to the girls from Mrs. Dawson's class for manning the generator bike and learning enough about it to present to the 6th graders; to Bob Stoll from CSU - not only helping kids in Mrs. DeWitt's class, but answering questions at the hybrid car section, and finally to my son Gus, who took a day off of school to help his dad prepare for the race as well as present the battery powered lawnmower - which he uses often.

And finally, I'd like to thank the 6th grade teachers. First, the language arts and social studies teachers for helping during the race. Science and Math teachers - you are truly amazing people. No one will ever know (except me) just how much work, dedication, preparation, and tenacity one has to have to do this project. You can not be thanked enough. I honor your sense of humor, your common sense, and your collective knowledge and wisdom.

Keep inspiring new visions for the future.

Kurt Thonnings

Important Links

NREL page National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Junior Solar Sprint Home	Chimacum School District A very complete site for schools running this project
Other JSS links Including extra pieces and parts students might order on their own	Rules/Regulations Outline of the rules Parkside will follow during the project

Past Year’s Work / Media Coverage Some work from past teams during the building process. In some cases the documentation is incomplete....but you'll get the picture.	Math and Science Standards This project covers multiple grade level indicators within the Ohio math and science curriculums.

Miscellaneous Worksheets Extra handouts and worksheets that provide additional information or classroom management	Use of Technology How students use technology during the project

Collective Knowledge	Photo gallery	Vehicle Database	Gear Calculations


Watch an overview presentation of our JSS program

	More on Gears...		More on Solar...
	Step-by-step movies on calculating gear ratio More gear calc explanation Gear calculation - Excel More on the motor... Motor specifications Motor Tips Tools... Safety Rules Tool time!		Angle of Incidence experiment Latitude/Longitude Finder Sun Angle Calculator Solar panel Specifications Links 2008-09 eTech Conference PowerPoint Teacher Tips Ideas from the pros Share with us your ideas

Parkside JSS Race Facts:

There are nearly 600 cars that have data in our online database, covering 6 years. For various reasons, there were probably another 100 or more cars that didn't get their data in.
The fastest time recorded over the 20 meter track was 7.7 seconds by the Westlake Demons car from Mr. Gast's class in 2010-11
The slowest time recorded and still finished the 20 meters was 55.8 seconds by the Kool Kar from Mrs. Seljan's class in 2006-07
The top 10 cars for 2010-11 were:
The top 10 cars for all 7 years:

Lessons


		Project Start
		2010-2011 Calendar
		Project List Excel PDF
		2010-11 Tool Permission Slip and Project Introduction letter
		2010-11 Parent/Corporation Race Letter
		2010-11 Project Rubric

		Phase 1: Introduction
		Introduction to project
		Daily JSS Bowl Terms / Concepts
		Basic Systems
		Preview: How solar panels work Ex 1 Ex 2 Ex 3
		Activity: Solar Panel Mini-Test *See also Solar cell experiment*
		Activity: Possible Power Labquest - Illumination Labquest - Voltage Old wrksht
		Activity: Problem Cars Worksheet - PDF / Word
		Activity: Materials and Processes
		Activity: Gears
		Gears worksheet *Worksheet - original* *PDF Word* *Calculation Poster PDF Word* *Worksheet - Vessalo PDF Word*
		Listed Gears

		Phase 2: Design / Prototype
		Activity: Design
		The Design Process *Worksheet -* *PDF Word*
		How to sketch designs Examples: 1 2 3

		Phase 3: Construction
		Working with Tools
		Rules
		What you need before working
		Optimizing for the race
		More on optimizing

		Phase 4: Collecting Data Prior to Race
		Collecting car data instructions
		Car Data Input page
		Assignment #3 - Collective Knowledge


		Phase 5: The Race
		Race Day Procedures
		2010-11 Press release

		JSS Bowl
		Key Definitions and concepts
		Collective Knowledge Input page