No sun, no problem at school solar car race

Middle schoolers who came to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City Monday to participate in the Junior Solar Sprint, a solar car race, faced the worst possible challenge -- no sun to power their cars.

But contestants wouldn’t be stopped by the unforgiving sky. The competition was moved into the building’s lobby, and students used battery packs to make their vehicles move.

The competition, funded by National Grid and involving 18 teams made up of students from Mineola Middle School, Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High School in Stony Brook and Brooklyn’s Our Lady of Grace, was established so students could utilize their knowledge of renewable energy, said the event’s coordinator, Jennifer Sumner of the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

“The weight and the design of it [the cars] still take into effect here,” Sumner said of the revised competition, noting that students still adorned their cars with solar panels just as they would have if the race had been held outside.

At Mineola Middle School, every sixth-grade student participated in building a solar car. Teachers Michelle Frascogna and Vincent Interrante brought the sixth-graders who built the eight fastest cars to Monday’s race.

“We really had no idea what to expect, you know, so we were just happy to be a part of it,” Frascogna said. “But I think it was great.”

In the end, the Mineola Middle School team of Joseph Kern, Sofia Cataliotti, Ray Jupidi and Emily O’Connell won the speed competition.

Frascogna said the competition forced students to use their problem-solving skills -- some cars at first didn’t work and required on-the-spot alterations and repairs.

That included seventh-graders Michelle Sun, Ilka St. Denis and Sophia Abanov of Robert Cushman Murphy Junior High, who shrieked in excitement when they learned that they had won the first-place design award.

“We were so surprised that we won for design,” St. Denis said.

Abanov said she and her teammates had low expectations.

“We came here hopeless, and our only motive was to get our car to move, because it was really doubtful because it was so heavy,” she said.

The team made it lighter by essentially removing half of the car, she said.

Sun added: “We had to try it seven times!”

Above: Mineola Middle School students Chloe Katinas, 12, right, and Kevin Fraccalvieri, 12, look on as their model solar cars cross the finish line during the Junior Solar Sprint at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. (May 21, 2012)