Chicago is gearing up for NASCAR's Street Race in July, and so are thousands of Chicago Public Schools students.
Nearly 22,000 students from CPS are participating in a major design competition, thanks to a partnership with NASCAR.
"The students are brainstorming to create a prototype for NASCAR helmets," said Lucie Sandoval, 5th Grade Teacher at Sor Juana Elementary School. "They’re taking into consideration different features that the driver may need such as fire hydration, cooling and communication sytems."
Since early March, 4th graders at Sor Juana Elementary School have been working in groups for the project. Each school received kits with the materials needed to develop the race helmets out of construction paper.
"NASCAR has loaned us their engineers and their stem career professionals to really make sure that this is true and accurate, "said Kate Klein, CPS Manager of STEM implementation and support.
Maximiliano Torres, a 4th grader at Sor Juana Elementary, came up with some unique concepts with his classmates.
"We made mini little fans for ventilation, they are battery charged," said Torres. "I really want to win this!"
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Top performing student groups from each of the participating schools will take part in the first ever STEM Fest at the Field Museum in May. The winners will receive complimentary tickets to the Chicago Street Race in July.
And while the top prize is a major incentive, NASCAR officials hope the competition will help these students learn transferable skills for the future, all while getting to know the sport.
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"If they’re interested in STEM careers they might think, wow, maybe I could be the next engineer at NASCAR, maybe I could be the next crew chief at NASCAR, and that’s really exciting," said Pete Stuart, Managing Director of Social Responsibility at NASCAR.
