Congratulations to Margaret Moore, a John W. Dodd Technology Education student, who is the first Freeport student to win the Nassau Technology Educators Association's CO2 Dragster Annual Competition. The CO2 Dragster Competition requires students to design their own dragster, build it themselves, and then race it in a competition with other schools and students. This race has a history of about 20 years and four different competition categories: Design, Stock, Open, and Balsa. Margaret won first place in the Design category.
The competition took place on Friday, April 29, 2011, at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, and more than 200 students competed in the race from approximately 10 schools throughout Long Island. Race day is a very exciting and valuable educational day for students. In addition to competing with their dragsters, students are organized into diverse race categories, cars are checked in, data is recorded, and the cars are removed from the track. At the end of the competition, students viewed an IMAX movie and toured the Museum.
With the help of her teacher, Mr. James Wandzilak, Margaret made her car in her technology class. Technology Education allows for interdisciplinary concepts to culminate by taking math and science concepts that are abstract to students and relate them to "real life" technology projects. Mr. Wandzilak incorporates many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) concepts in helping students prepare for this competition. The students can appreciate the core subjects in a greater way due to this interdisciplinary approach of STEM teaching.
Students discuss science concepts such as Newton's Third Law of Motion, friction and mass as elements that affect the dragster's performance, and aerodynamics. The Math and Technology Departments work collaboratively to ensure that proper math equations are used in the technology curriculum. Students use math to calculate the actual speed of the dragster, and proper measurements are necessary for the dragsters to comply with the race standards.
Part of the problem solving that takes place in the Dragster Competition is also related to engineering and design. Students conduct research on the computer before they begin designing their vehicles. They also use the Internet to research information related to the dragsters and review available designs before making their selections or expanding their ideas. Art skills are also integrated as students are required to sketch and draw full scale models of their dragster on the computer using a CAD program called AutoSketch. While some students aim to make their dragsters the fastest vehicle, others design their vehicles to be more artistic. Either way, students meet the necessary requirements for the class and the competition.