Ready, set, soar! If you thought engineering was just bridges and roadways, you clearly didn’t attend this year’s Fly Your Ride competition at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park where flying cars were launched down a six-foot-tall ramp to see which could jump the widest gap.
SDG&E and the Best Buy Foundation partnered with the Air & Space Museum to invite more than 130 Southern California middle school and high school teams to the flying car competition, aimed at inspiring students to innovate, create and develop an interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Going the distance
Teams of 6th through 12th grade students put their imaginations and STEM skills to use by designing and building technically intricate vehicles no larger than a shoe box and sliding it down a ramp to test which car could leap the farthest distance. The judging committee evaluated every vehicle based on safety and originality, distance covered (as the ramp was gradually widened throughout the competition) and creativity in engineering.
Students also received feedback from engineering experts and had opportunities to meet and greet with people in these fields. Watch the short video below to see the competition in action.