Near the end of the school year, Gorham Middle School (GMS) eighth grade students competed in the fourth annual Junior Solar Sprint Challenge, an event sponsored by Sacopee Energy & Climate Activities.

The solar car race is a national competition for fifth through eighth graders. Hundreds of students in the state of Maine designed and built solar cars in their classrooms. There were qualifying races all over the state in May and June, and the Gorham qualifying races were held on the GMS outdoor basketball court.

With almost the whole eighth grade participating, Gorham was the largest participating school in the state.

After being given guidelines and design criteria, students were free to imagine their own designs and construct their cars out of materials of their choosing. There was no shortage of creativity involved in the building of the solar cars.

In some cases, students used recycled materials, and in other cases, they used 3D printers to create custom parts to help overcome design and material challenges.

Preliminary races were held all throughout the day. While other grade levels spectated, eighth grade students raced within their preliminary groups, and the fastest cars from each group competed in a final heat at the end of the day.

At the conclusion of all of the races, eight different teams were offered invitations to compete in the state competition at Paris Elementary School on June 2. The Monhegan teams of Emma Mullen/Michelle Darling and Lucas Castles/Evan Russo were the only teams that took their creations to compete, representing Gorham strongly with their impressive entries.