Upward Bound students to race solar-powered mini-cars June 29

Upward Bound summer program students at Pima's Desert Vista Campus are holding a solar-powered mini-car race at 1 p.m. Monday, June 29.

Preliminary races on June 25 trimmed the field of 20 cars to 6 to 10 that may race on June 29. The race of the 5- to 7-inch kit cars will be on a 24-foot sidewalk "racetrack" on the East Side of the cafeteria at the campus. The race concludes the summer program, which began May 28.

"This is the first time we've done this," says Daniel Pacheco, TRIO Upward Bound Program Manager at the Desert Vista Campus. "The project is for their math class. They'll be measuring distance and force."

The 48 students are sophomores, juniors and seniors from Sunnyside and Desert View high schools and Vision and Luz Academy charter schools. They built the cars in teams of two to three.

A total of 61 students are in Upward Bound at Desert Vista. Those not in the summer program are in summer school at their high schools and/or an academy or camp at The University of Arizona.

During the summer program, the students also worked on physics, media arts, health and classes introducing them to college.

On June 30, the summer program students will take a two-day trip, visiting the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix and touring Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Upward Bound is a federally funded college prep program designed to serve low-income, first-generation college students. It is designed for freshman or sophomore students attending selected high schools, who meet federal income guidelines, need academic assistance to graduate high school and pass AIMS, and whose parents have not graduated from a four-year university.

Students accepted into Upward Bound will participate in the program for the remainder of their high school career and the first two years of college. Upward Bound also offers such things as tutoring, career counseling, and college prep and parent workshops.

PCC hosts Upward Bound programs at its Downtown, East, and Northwest Campuses, as well as Desert Vista.

Posted: June 26, 2009