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Chaney STEM students on track designing, building race cars
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Drucella Garcia, a junior at Chaney’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math School, shows off the dragster she designed, built, sanded and painted to race in the school gymnasium.
By DENISE DICK
denise_dick@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Bra-Ashia Lambert, 18, isn’t a geek.
She’s a future engineer. That’s what her shirt says.
Bra-Ashia is a senior in Chaney’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Math program, and Wednesday she and her fellow STEM students enjoyed a day at the races.
She designed her streamlined, multi-colored car to be lightweight and aerodynamic, and she won her first race.
Pam Lubich, Chaney’s STEM coordinator, said the students designed, built, sanded and painted their cars in class.
A 3-foot-high drag strip stretched 80 feet across the school gymnasium. The cars, constructed from plywood and plastic wheels, were strung along fishing line. Carbon dioxide powered them down the track.
Teacher Cory Rudibaugh said the fastest time by mid-morning was 1.2 seconds.
“That’s 45 feet per second or about 30 miles per hour,” Rudibaugh said.
For each race, Carrie Sinkele, an engineering teacher at Chaney, and Kevin Sinkele, her husband and a construction teacher at Choffin Career and Technical Center, string the cars on the fishing line using eye hooks screwed into each mini-roadster’s undercarriage. They lined them up, and each student pressed a button sending their car down the drag strip.
The set-up has been at Choffin, where Carrie Sinkele used to teach, for the last several years. It will stay at Chaney though, and a new track will be constructed at Choffin.
Freshman Jeremy Woodberry, 14, won his first round.
“I looked at a model of a drag car and modeled it after that,” he said.
Race day started with 64 cars, whittled down with each race.
Junior Drucella Garcia, 16, pitted her car with “Love” painted on the side against Rudibaugh’s vehicle, which resembled a guitar.
Age outpaced beauty as Drucella’s car had to eat Rudibaugh’s dust.
First place honors went to Jayla Thompson. Jaret Spayd took second place; Regina Comer won third and Serena Chatman placed fourth in Wednesday’s competition.