Welcome to
Mr. Panek's 4-8 Art Class
at Westminster Community Charter School,
Buffalo's Best!!
2 New Announcements Added April 2010!!
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***************************Coming Soon***************************
The Westminster Community Charter School Drama/Musical Production Presents:
"The Wizard of Oz"
coming to the Auditorium in early May
***************************Coming Soon***************************
Brought to you by:
Lowe's
&
M&T Bank
What is it?
A 1/24 scale, electric dragstrip (spanning the first floor hallway) will begin construction upon return from Spring Break.
Where is the funding for such a build coming from?
The Lowe's Toolbox for Education Grant
&
PTO Today, Inc.
An excited "Thank You" to all the supporting organizations for making this a reality!
Here is a little appetizer:
A small group of 5th & 6th grade students began building their electric car chassis at the end of last year in anticipation for the opening of our very own track! Mr. Plewinski has already (and continues to) explored other "Alternative Fuel Vehicles" such as; Solar, Wind, Hydrogen, H2O and CO2. What was missing? Electric.
This is where the Lowe's Toolbox for Education Grant will help fill this vacancy. The Parallel Pass Dragway will be a scaled 1/4 mile track with a professional Trackmate Timing System similar to one that is used at a local Raceway! We will be able to set Dial-In time's and various other options with this system. I cannot stress the word professional enough, with this excellent system/program.
Not only will we be able to race our creations but we will learn that there is quite-a-bit of knowledge behind such fun. The students will explore the elements of vehicle design with the aid of science. Discussions/explanations/demonstrations on velocity, speed, physics, aerodynamics, chassis geometry, scale, basic electric wiring, timing and other related topics will be covered.
The students vehicles will be in the 1/24 scale. The students will build/mount/paint their individual or group vehicle, using various materials that have not been used in Art or Technology. Each vehicle will be approximately 7.5"- 8.0" in length. The HO scale (approximate car length is 3") is nice, but these bigger vehicles are quick, detailed, and when painted with care and precision, sweet! The cars should cover roughly 60 feet in around 3.0 - 3.5 seconds with the track voltage set at 14V (haven't run a 1/4 mile trial yet, times are approx. due to the only track that I have run on is 1/8 mile - best time on 1/8 was 2.156 seconds @ 13.17 MPH, with base Carrera Gold motor).
There will be a page dedicated to this ongoing project: build photos, participants, upcoming events, results, outside-our-school invitational announcements. Stay tuned...
