Photo Gallery: North County Students Power Solar Cars

Students in 's Matter and Energy class participated in a solar car race Monday afternoon using the sun to power their cars across a tennis court.

The year-end project for students in Kate Whitman and Karen Gruner's Matter and Energy classes is the first time Whitman has done the event at North County. She's been with the school for two years.

"Students are given the pieces [to make the car]. They analyze the pices and come up with a design that makes the pieces work," she said. "They have to figure out what works with what. They put it together and try it out and then come back and make changes if they need to."

The car made by freshmen Ashly Padgett, Cassandra Tiell and Allison Rose won the race.

"We really just winged it," Padgett said of putting together her group's car.

The group said their original solar car fell off of a table, so the winning car was their second attempt.

Whitman said through the project students learned about energy transformations, technology and renewable resources such as solar and tidal energy.

Sen. Ed DeGrange (D-Glen Burnie) presented Whitman with a donation that she said will make sure students can participate in the project again next year.

"Solar kits are expensive. Students with the winning cars get to keep their cars. We take apart the other cars and reuse them but we can't reuse the wood," she said. "So with the money I'll be able to buy wood for next year."