In Mr. Sanders eighth grade science class, the students are starting a brand new fun and creative experiment, balloon cars.  And no, they did not have a balloon artist come in and entertain them with plastic automotive sculptures.  Students had to make their cars out of lightweight materials that moved off of the power of an eight inch inflated balloon attached to their car.  They needed at least three wheels on the car, and the cars could be made out of anything.  Any testing or building of the cars was done in Mr. Sanders’ classroom or in the gymnasium.  The balloon cars were a thrilling project for the eighth grade this year, from the action-packed classes where students attempted to build the cars to the day they could finally put them to the test.  Everybody involved with the project was very eager to start.   Students designed the base of their cars with their own unique takes on the assignment.   “One student even used a gatorade bottle [as the base of the car] and a strut system, which kept her base [the Gatorade bottle] from shifting left or right.  There are always four or five cars every year that are special,” said Sanders of the project he has been overseeing for many years now in his class.

The lesson to be learned from this project is that a balloon will not move a heavy object very fast or far, so you have to learn how to build your car with small, light materials that have very little air or ground friction.  The second choice that the students had to make about their cars after picking their base was the type of wheels they would use.  “I used bottle caps for my wheels because I wanted a lightweight car that would go fast,” explained Josh Greene, the eighth grader who had the fastest car which went 2.2 mph.  “I was going for speed, not distance, which is why I made my car small and lightweight,” Greene explained.  Even though the fastest car in the eighth grade had bottle caps for wheels, many students used other wheels to go for distance, not speed.  The car made by Gage Goldstein, who used CDs for his wheels, traveled the farthest – 20 meters. “I used CDs for my wheels because I thought that they were good for going a long distance, and they do not have a lot of ground friction,” commented Goldstein. “I also used a very light base made of paper so that the wheels would keep rolling after the balloon was completely deflated.”

Even though the students did not race head to head in the gym, the car competition got pretty heated.  The students were competing for the fastest car and the farthest car, and they were doing all that was in their power to win the, “race.”  Even though there was no prize given to the winner, students’ grades depended on their race performance. It looks like Gaige Goldstein and Josh Greene will have bragging rights for the rest of the year.