Fab Lab launches very first Remote Control Custom-made Car Open
It’s a big day for petite cars and their creators
Andrew Jaffee’s students needed a laser cutter for last-minute modification before the big race on Saturday.
That kind of technology is sparse in his own classroom, but he says Fab Lab fills the gap.
Jaffee’s students from Fruitville Elementary were among more than two hundred students on Saturday rivaling in the Suncoast Science/Faulhaber Fab Lab’s Inaugural Remote Control Custom-made Car Open. Participants had more than a month worth of workshops and mentor programs before their designs hit the pavement this weekend. Even with all that coaching, the Fruitville Elementary students were the still working out kinks at nine p.m. the night before. They were excited, and they wished the car to run just right. Fab Lab gave them the resources to do it.�
“My students have seen things that they just wouldn’t see otherwise,” Jaffee said. “We just can’t do them in the school. The capability for my kids to say ‘We need a fresh wheel design. Let’s laser cut it!’ is amazing.”
The Suncoast Science/Faulhaber Fab Lab �on the Suncoast Technical College campus�has provided an outlet for youth ingenuity since the nonprofit launched in May. The organization gives students first-hand practice tinkering with robots, 3D imaging and computers, said Ping Faulhaber, the lab’s executive director.
The turnout for the inaugural competition was greater than expected, and the diversity in the final products was outstanding,�said Mitch Ruzek, a mentor and consultant at Fab Lab. Participants�on Saturday could win awards for design as well as haul and lap races. The cars had to look appealing, but they also needed speed and agility.
“This type of event shows kids, specifically, that science isn’t just a textbook,” Ruzek said. “It’s something that they can capture and hold onto. They can manipulate and innovate. They can be artistic.”
Olivia Kolb, Ten, and Tira VanDenHoek, 11, were two of the brains behind Team Wonder Women. They’d spent time decorating their car with the Wonder Woman logo, but also hashing out the best way for the car to treat the terrain during the lap race.
“It’s got big wheels because when we practiced we witnessed the track is fairly bumpy, so the big tires help,” Olivia said.
Jena Kolb, Olivia’s mother, said her daughter has come home from the workshops excited about the fresh technology and impatient to learn more. The women on Team Wonder Women have gotten to use 3D printers, vinyl cutters and devices that would have been hard to find outside the Fab Lab.
That exposure and that eagerness is exactly what Faulhaber hoped for during this inaugural event, but also for the lab as a entire.
“School is very limited,” Faulhaber said. “There’s only so much that they can do. They have to keep the curriculum going. They have to get the testing done. In school you instruct them about theory, but they need a place like this to practice it.”