Algebra students construct edible cars

For the past couple of weeks students in Mrs. Simpson’s Algebra II class have been using their engineering skills to design and build edible cars.  Students worked in small groups to construct the cars to have them ready to race on Monday, February 22.

The rules for building the cars were that the car had to be completely edible, have five shapes used in construction, must look like a car, must have two axles and three wheels, and finally the car must be able to roll down the ramp that was assembled in the classroom.

In addition to constructing the car, students also had to turn in a description of how the car was made and include a picture.  Students also had to use reasoning to form a logical hypothesis on how they thought their car was going to do.

Overall the cars turned out great and much to the students’ surprise most of the cars were able to successfully roll down the ramp.  When asked about his car, made mostly of rice crispy treats, Nathan Marsland stated, “the edible car race went delicious.”  Marina Cole also thought that the races did good and stated, “the car races were a success, everyone really stepped up to the plate and did their best and overall it was a really fun project.”

When asked about the project Mrs. Simpson stated, “students had a great time racing the cars, applying their reasoning skills, as well as trial and error to solve problems and design a model of a moving vehicle.”  Overall, Mrs. Simpson was extremely proud of all the effort that her students put into the cars and seemed to really enjoy the races.  However, Mrs. Simpson wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the races, the students seemed really interested and had fun racing their cars.

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Story by Hannah Janus