PLANTATION, FLA. (WSVN) - A team of South Florida high school students is already back in the engineering lab after winning its second straight national Solar Car Challenge championship.
Students across Broward and Palm Beach returned to the lab at South Plantation High School, laser-focused on their next big project while still overjoyed about their great accomplishment.
“I was very surprised. I honestly did not expect to get all of the miles,” said student Oliver Collins.
“Extremely exciting,” said student Tomas Negron.
Students with the 4-H TechGarage said its solar-powered vehicle captured back-to-back national titles in the Texas competition after completing every available mile during the competition.
“It just kept going. More miles, more miles. Every day we got more miles,” said Collins.
“This race was 656.7 available miles. We drove every single inch of it,” said coach Allan Phipps.
The team is made up of students who design, build, and race their own solar-powered vehicle across the Lone Star State.
“These students are learning CAD skills, electronics, engineering skills, as well as a lot of the career readiness skills like teamwork, time management. communication, collaboration,” said Phipps.
Students said the project was very challenging but lots of fun and educational.
“We just put in so much time into this car and were able to get first,” said Negron.
“It was such a fun experience that you can’t get anywhere else,” said Collins. “So many things that just I think will come in handy when I do become an engineer.”
The team also said the experience taught them valuable lessons beyond engineering.
“It’s not about how fast you can go. It’s not about how good one person is on the team. It’s about how well a whole team works together to make a machine work like a well-oiled machine because that’s what a team is and that’s what our team was,” said Collins.
Now, the group is turning its attention to next year’s competition, making adjustments to improve both the car’s range and top speed as it looks to win a third consecutive national championship.
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