South Texas schools and colleges participated in an electric car race Saturday at the Brownsville/South Padre Island Airport to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers to students of all ages.
“Today, I’m honestly pretty excited,” San Benito High School junior Reynaldo Ruvalcaba said last Saturday. “It’s not just a competitive thing; we actually help each other out.”
Ruvalcaba was among the 320 students who participated in the competition.
WINNERS: UTRGV Brownsville placed first in the higher education category; Texas A&M University-Kingsville, second; Texas A&M International University, third.
Lamar Academy in McAllen earned first in the high school division; Harlingen High School, second; San Benito High School, third.
Oliveira Middle School earned first in the middle school division; Garcia Middle School, second; Stillman Middle School, third. All are in Brownsville.
The GreenpowerUSA South Texas Electric Car Competition was part of UTRGV’s Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) program.
The competition was not a traditional race to the finish line, though. Rather, an electric car had 90 minutes to cover as much distance as possible. The winner was the electric car with the most distance covered in the allotted time.
Each team assembled its own electric car using a kit purchased from GreenPowerUSA. The kit provided all the materials to make the car run. Teams could manipulate different parts of vehicles as well.
As the race continued, students in “the pit” made adjustments to their vehicles.
“We just went over our car right now,” UTRGV Edinburg Head Coach Marcos Villarreal said. “We checked all the bolts, made sure everything was tight. All the components seem to be working, so we’re pretty hopeful that we are going to be able to finish the race.”
Participants faced last-minute obstacles, such as rain and strong gusts of wind throughout the competition. Despite the conditions, students were prepared to fix anything needed to finish the race.
Though it was a competition, coaches and students still knew that the goal was to learn and become better in the end.
“It’s not just a race,” San Benito High School Head Coach Mary Maney said. “It is learning to cooperate and learning to problem solve.”
