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SHINE of Luzerne County at Wilkes University Holds Middle-School Student Derby Race on May 26

Students Will Race At Hanover Area High School

Wilkes-Barre, PA (05/21/2018) — Middle school students will start their engines to compete in the year-end derby race sponsored by SHINE of Luzerne County at Wilkes University and Carbon County SHINE. The race will be held on May 26. The students will race for the fastest time at the rear of Hanover Area High School, 1600 Sans Souci Parkway, Wilkes-Barre. The public is invited to attend.

The teams' cars will have practice runs from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. and time trials are from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. Each center has three cars in the time trials and the winner from each team goes on to compete in the final race. The car with the fastest time will be awarded the title of best overall engineered car. The students will be given awards based on best designed steering system, best designed breaking system, most team spirit, best exterior car design, best designed safety harness and best use of teamwork.

The media is invited to attend the final race at 11:30 a.m. held near the baseball field. It concludes at noon and lunch and an awards ceremony will folllow. WBRE's Nick Toma will be a celebrity host and judge.

This year SHINE elementary centers in the Wilkes Barre Area, Wyoming Valley West, Nanticoke Area, Hanover Area and Hazleton Area school districts have constructed smaller scale derby cars out of school supplies that they will race near the finish line, which will be near the high school tennis courts.

Other highlights of the day's events will include face painting, a DJ, STEM activity stations, cotton candy and Italian ice. Tricky, the Pocono Raceway mascot, also will be at the event.

Fifth- to eighth-grade students in the SHINE after-school programs at Wilkes-Barre Career and Technical Center, West-Side Career and Technical Center and Hazleton Area Career Academy have been working on their derby cars for the past ten-weeks.

Students at each of the Luzerne County SHINE middle-school centers designed and built the cars as part of a ten-week unit that required them to use STEM skills in action. Students designed and built the braking systems, steering and safety harness of the car as well as the body. They learned the physics of what makes a derby car go, used 3D modeling in developing their designs, took measurements and used carpentry skills in assembling the vehicles. Artistic skills were used to paint and decorate each vehicle.

The Carbon County soap box derby cars are created from the Instructables Easy Soap Box Derby Car Kit. The final product is a collaboration between SHINE students and the engineering and woodshop students at both Penn-Kidder Campus and LB Morris schools within the Jim Thorpe Area School District. The two Carbon County cars will race against each other in a separate race.

The cars will sport their logos just like real racecars. Car sponsors contributed $300 each to sponsor the vehicles which paid for materials.

The Luzerne car sponsors include Children's Service Center, The Yudichak Lighthouse Foundation, Wilkes University, The Luzerne Foundation, Congressman Lou Barletta and the United Way of Wyoming Valley.

The SHINE contact on the day of the event is Carol Nicholas, director of SHINE of Luzerne County, at 570 466-3491.

About Wilkes University:

Wilkes University is an independent institution of higher education dedicated to academic and intellectual excellence through mentoring in the liberal arts, sciences and professional programs. Founded in 1933, the university is on a mission to create one of the great small universities, offering all of the programs, activities and opportunities of a large, research university in the intimate, caring and mentoring environment of a small, liberal arts college, at a cost that is increasingly competitive with public universities. The Economist named Wilkes 25th in the nation for the value of its education for graduates. In addition to 43 bachelor's degree programs, Wilkes offers 25 master's degree programs and five doctoral/terminal degree programs, including the doctor of philosophy in nursing, doctor of nursing practice, doctor of education, doctor of pharmacy, and master of fine arts in creative writing. Learn more at www.wilkes.edu.

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