News
Middle School Students Visit Gator Motorsports
Bolles middle school students from the Math Counts and Robotics Teams traveled to the University of Florida on April 24 to visit Gator Motorsports. Gator Motorsports, University of Florida’s Society of Automotive Engineers (UFSAE), is an interdisciplinary group of over 50 students who work together to design, manufacture, and present one Formula and one Baja car at annual competitions comprised of more than 400 universities across five continents in the world. UFSAE also reaches out to the community to promote the ideals of engineering and the University of Florida.
The group of 21 Bolles students attended the “World in Motion” lab at the School of Mechanical Engineering. Students toured the automotive facility, viewing computerized machinery and equipment used by the engineering students to build the Formula and Baja cars that they enter into international competition each year. Following the tour, the students formed small groups to compete in making a motorized car using a variety of gears and axles. Engineering students coached each group, helping them to ready their cars for competition. Each group ran their cars twice on the competition track, recording their best time. Students were able to ask a myriad of questions about the facility, the cars, and the field of engineering. In addition, they were given the opportunity to sit in this year’s Baja car.
Student comments shared following the trip included:
• It was fun meeting all the cool students.
• We learned how to help a car go faster, stop quickly, and turn easily.
• It was a good experience being able to go to the college and see if it was someplace I wanted to go when I grew up.
• The field trip was fascinating and educational.
• I would love to be a mechanical engineer when I grow up.
• We won the 1st place Rubber Ducky!!
• What I enjoyed about the trip was the hands-on activity.
• I liked building the car, experimenting and exploring.
• I learned that there is a lot more to robotics and engineering than I had thought.
• Building the car with the UF students was really fun.
Students who attended:
Robotics Team: Jordan Batchelor, Alexander Chila, Anthony Elias, Daniel Gesek, Gray Houston, Adam Kessler, Alec Lerner, Carolyn Margulies, Nathan McQueen, Katherine Odom-Tomchin, and Kayleigh Painter.
Coach: Mrs. Gloria Wood
Math Counts Team: Nathan Kostick, Ricky Villanueva, Scott Wittlinger, Alex Frias, Kat McLauchlan, Amanda Ferraro, Cheyenne Shrader, Aaisha Gulani, Zareen Sarwar, and Patrick Glover.
Coaches: Dr. Ann Askren; Mrs. Mari Booth