| Club constructs eco-friendly miniature vehicles (2/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Angela M. Chen | |
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“Be very careful with these cars. Although they are not thousands of dollars, they are not second-hand cars either,” said senior Xiao Xu, president of the Lowell Science Association club. “Remember we have to resell, so don’t lose any parts.” With a set of rubber wheels, a solar panel, a packet of small screws, a cluster of metal parts entangled in wire and an instruction manual, members were left to assemble their own functioning solar cars. Students split into two groups with one kit per team and competed to see which team would finish the car first. When the sun finally broke through the stormy clouds on Feb. 4, members were finally able to test out their cars. Club web manager sophomore Arthur Lei first held the car up in the air to let the its solar panel absorb sunlight. “It’s spinning, it’s spinning!” he said excitedly, as the wheels of the car started to spin faster and faster in his hands. Once the car was on the ground, it moved straight forward as long as it was in sunlight. Members discovered the they could start and stop the car by controlling where they cast a shadow. Physics teacher and club sponsor Richard Shapiro explained that the velocity of the solar car is directly proportional to the intensity of light. Sophomore club member Anita Lee said she liked being able to finally see how a solar car works. “You always hear about solar panels on roofs and now we have the opportunity to observe something powered by the sun,” she said. This type of observation and hands-on experience in science is exactly what the Lowell Science Association emphasizes. “We started this club because many students don’t have enough chances to get involved in experiments in their science class,” Xu said. The comfortable, non-classroom environment is why many members like the club. “We're not here to worry about grades or lab reports,” Lee said. Xu agreed that the club is a place for students to really enjoy science without the usual pressure from school. “The psychology here is that people like to do labs but they don't like to write lab reports,” Xu said. Xu usually takes information from science textbooks and gives the members the background and objective of the lab before proceeding. “I want people to learn from more hand-on activities instead of just reading the textbook,” he said. The club’s labs can be divided into two categories. One type of lab involves designs. “There are no set procedures for designs and members use their imagination and creativity to make their own thing,” Xu said. Sometimes the club holds competitions for designs, such as last year’s contest for the best method to protect an egg from a three-story fall. The second type involves experimentation, involving strict procedures and expected results. Basically, members make a hypothesis and test it. Recently on Feb. 11, the club experimented with the popular Internet phenomenon of creating an eruption from Diet Coke and Mentos. The club added their own spin to the experiment by using four different types of soda. In addition to the original diet coke, they added mentos to orange soda, lemon-lime soda, and Cherry Coke. The Diet Coke still proved to create the strongest reaction. “It was unexpected — the height and intensity of (Diet Coke) compared to the other results,” Lee said. Lei agreed. “I was amazed I was able to get away without getting wet,” he added. The club has many labs planned for the future. They plan to resell the solar cars later and use the money to purchase materials for new labs. The officers said they hope to work with more design labs, such as building hot air balloons and working with robotics. The Lowell Science Association meets after school every other Monday in Room S202. For more information, students can visit the club Web site. (http://sci.lowellclubs.org) |
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