Hampton middle schoolers build and drive solar go-karts
The name of the game was fun Wednesday at Hampton’s Phenix School, where students were driving solar go-karts they had built during a summer enrichment program.
The 10-year-olds scowled in concentration. The young teens nonchalantly steered with one hand. But all drove the go-karts, which were one of the projects during their four-week Summer STREAM enrichment program that ended this week.
The program is funded by the 21st Century Community Learning Centers federal grant, which seeks to provide free quality academic and social enrichments.
The go-karts were part of the Build & Soar project — a partnership between Flying Classroom and Hampton City Schools. Flying Classroom is a supplemental digital curriculum that offers experiential learning projects focused on STEM and technical skills. The program offers various engineering design challenges to students in all grade levels.
“We try to bring to life the things that students have to learn,” Barrington Irving, the founder of Flying Classroom, said at the event.
The program began with a focus on STEM fields but has expanded to include technical skills.
“We want more children exposed to using tools,” Irving said. “We have massive technical skill shortages. One of the things we found is the reason why kids don’t pursue technical fields is because, when do they actually ever use a tool?”
Irving said his programs are about providing students with real-world experiences.
“This is empowering,” he said. “We want them to feel like little explorers and engineers.”
As part of the Build & Soar program, students stripped down a gas-powered go-kart and transformed it into a solar-powered one.
Karen Johnson, the out-of-school time coordinator for Hampton City Schools, said the program exposes students to skills they’ll need for the jobs of the future.
Fallan Lee-Brown is the co-coordinator for the 21st Century Summer STREAM program at Cesar Tarrant Middle School. She brought her students to Phenix on Wednesday to drive the go-karts they had worked on during the program.
Lee-Brown said the program is about giving students the chance to explore, and instilling confidence in them as they gain new skills.
Kaylani Allen, 13, is a rising eighth grader. She was one of the students who worked on the go-karts.
“It was cool,” Allen said. “We got to learn about the different tools, and more about solar panels.”
Organizers also brought in some elementary school students who participated in different projects for a chance to see and drive the go-karts, as a preview of what they could do when they are older.
Empriss Williams, 10, attended Wednesday’s event. She said her older brother got to build the go-karts and talked about it at home.
“He told me they took some time but it was exciting,” Williams said.
She hopes she’ll have the chance to do it next year, mainly for one reason: “So I can drive them.”
Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com
