By TARA HETTINGER
Noah Woods examined his powered car made out of an ice-cream box and pointed at the motor.
“It’s from an auto-card shuffler,” the 12-year-old explained. “I figured it has to have something in it to spin the cards.”
The Community Montessori student created that car — as well as others — with the help of his classmates using products from their homes.
It all started a few weeks ago when a few students in the Diamond Studio — which is for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders — decided to take apart some old electronics, such as a hair dryer, printers and more to see how they work. Their teacher, Heather Wathen, said the kids then researched all those parts to see what each did and then figured out that they could make a working car out of it.
From there, the students started making plans. They used their teacher’s window markers to create their design drawings on the classroom window.
They then got to work, putting their ideas into action. They made many cars, some of which didn’t work at all, others drove crooked and one even had 50 volts of power.
“The wire exploded,” 11-year-old Charley Drew-Wolak said matter-of-factly. “It was too much power.”
So, they backed it off, using just one 9-volt battery and found fixes to the other issues. With a little bit of glue and tape, the students put all the pieces together, including drink caps and K’NEX building pieces to make the wheels.
“The hard part comes in when you have a big group of kids and everyone has ideas that they want to do,” Woods said.
Other than that, he said it was easy to do once they had the logistics figured out.
“I liked it because I like electricity, because I think it’s very interesting,” 10-year-old Grayson Buttler said.
“It’s cool because like you can tell people that you know how to build a car, and most people don’t know how to build a car,” 12-year-old Ethan Ridings said.
“It’s also a good way to make more friendships,” Wood said, adding that he got closer to his classmates through this project.
Though the children reached their goal, they have set their sights one step higher, which involves using the creek behind the school.
“I’m hoping we could do something, like a swamp boat, with a fan in the back that pushes it in the creek,” Woods said excitedly.
As the students pursue their curiosity, Wathen said she is there to help guide them along the way. However, this project hasn’t just helped the students.
“I have definitely learned from them,” she said.
COMMUNITY MONTESSORI
• Community Montessori is a charter public school in New Albany. It is tuition free for students in kindergarten through ninth grade. The school is adding on a grade level every year and plans to graduate its first class of seniors in 2012.
