Sheckler Elementary School’s third-grade students took part in a Motion and Matter engineering challenge race-off May 3.

The winners were Finnegan McGinley and Owen Siegmund in Wendy Laubenstein’s class. They were followed by Claire Snyder, Aaliyah Perry, Maeve Roth and Layla Povenski, of Brandon Keks’ class, in a tie.

“I was very stressed because ours kept on turning,” Finnegan said after the race. “We had to figure out how to make it go straight.”

“I was very nervous for the race and excited because we won,” Owen added.

The students were to tackle the engineering challenge of building a vehicle. The criterion was slightly adjusted this year in that whatever was created must have at least four wheels and a body and must be able to roll from one place to another when released down a ramp using a restricted set of materials.

Students learned about gravity, friction, axles, aerodynamics, collaboration and trial and error.

After the initial build, students tested their prototypes and compared alternative solutions changing one variable at a time in order to improve their designs. Students discovered “failure” is fine and expected in engineering and that is what drives you to improve your idea and make progress.