Recently our STEM class from Arlington Highschool participateed in a Pinewood Derby. The Pinewood Derby is a race consisting of pinewood cars made by the students. It’s a fun experience that also allows the students to learn new things along the way. Mrs. SandlinRogers, the STEM teacher, says “It helps students look at a project and how they go about brainstorming, creating, drawing out floor plans for their car, and testing and being able to understand that it is okay to fail. Your car doesn’t have to work the first design. You do get a redesign and that’s what engineering is about. It’s redesigning until things work.” With that, you can see that this event gives students a real life look into the engineering design process. Student, Brandon Kelley, states, “We really got a good understanding on mass, acceleration, and force. Also it was cool to see how certain things act on diffferent materials.” A big part of this was how the students learned to adjust to what they thought was right and what they thought would work best. Their independence in their work is a very important skill that the students really excelled in. Overall, Brandon Kelley encourages other people to partcipate in a Pinewood Derby by stating, “Its definitely a good learning experience and helps you to pace out your projects more.” The students that were involved with this project had a great time and, as you can see, learned numerous things that can help them later in life.