Santiago Garcia already has a good idea of how he wants to earn a living when he gets finished with all the years of school that lie ahead.
The seventh-grade Española Middle School student plans to become a mechanical engineer and the competition in which he and his teammates participated, Nov. 18, will help him achieve that goal.
Garcia was one of 14 students, divided into three teams, that traveled to Albuquerque’s Van Buren Middle School, to take part in the New Mexico Middle School Electric Car Challenge.
The students earned a trophy for the perseverance they displayed.
Middle School Smart Lab Instructor Manuel Espinoza said the students earned the trophy because of the patience they exercised while addressing, mostly, engineering problems that came up during the competition.
Students had to think on their feet, to solve complex problems with the car’s gears and/or wiring that impacted its performance.
He said in his 18-year career, he never gets tired of seeing how excited the students get when they overcome a tough concept or realize a goal.
“I love teaching and kind of forming students’ minds,” Espinoza said. “It is my main issue.”
Students in his Smart Lab class also are taught how to use Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel to design and track the project’s growth.
Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory sponsored the event.
Personnel from the labs provided supplies like batteries and specialty parts, such as the wheels, chassis and gears, needed to build the cars.
Organizers said the idea was to get the middle school students excited about science and technology, while using skills that reinforce their everyday studies.
Garcia said although he enjoyed helping his teammates build the tiny, fast-moving cars, he decided he wanted to be a mechanical engineer long before the competition.
“I just decided one day, that is what I wanted to do,” he said.
His classmate, Kameron Montoya, also enjoyed watching how quickly the cars accelerated.
She said what stuck with her the most, while working on the project, “is that you can learn from your mistakes.”
Her younger sister, 12-year-old Krystian Montoya, enjoyed the project because it allowed the students to think outside of the box.
Unlike most classes, where students are instructed to work alone, Smart Lab students are encourage to work together.
Krystian Montoya said working in a group setting can be good because it allows her and her classmates to exchange ideas, which is helpful when trying to figure out and solve problems.
“Getting to work with all of my friends, is what I like most,” she said. “It is better to work as a team.”
Now that the Electric Car competition is over, Espinoza and his students are preparing for the Future City competition, which will take place in January.
Students participating in that event will envision, research and design a future city with one question in mind: How to make the world a better place.
This year, the students will be prompted to design an age-friendly city.
While Espinoza’s students haven’t thoroughly imagined what they want their Future City to look like, they know for certain, it will be a drug-free city.
Seventh-grader Tommy Romero would like to see his classmates design a Future City with better public transportation and more places for children.
Sandia National Laboratories Community Involvement Manager Amy Tapia said her organization, along with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, sponsored the event to help get students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
The idea is that, one day, the students may want to pursue a career in one of the science and technology fields.
Tapia said her organization especially likes hosting the car challenge because it gives students hands-on engineering experience.
“This particular event, what we like about (it, is) it really help students understand engineering because they are actually doing engineering and they can understand the connection between math and science and why what they are learning is relevant,” Tapia said.
Middle School Principal Julie Gutierrez said she is pleased that her teaching staff goes out of their way to look for learning opportunities to bring back to the District.
Today’s lessons will help prepare students for the next phase of their educational journey — high school.