5th Annual Cape & Islands Area Junior Solar Sprint Competition

5th Annual Cape & Islands Area Junior Solar Sprint Competition on Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Participation has doubled for this year's event

WEST BARNSTABLE - The Cape & Islands Self-Reliance is partnering with AmeriCorps Cape Cod and Cape Cod Community College to host the 5th Annual Cape & Islands Area Junior Solar Sprint Competition on Saturday, May 10th, 2008.  The event will be held from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Cape Cod Community College tennis courts, with lunch donated by local businesses.

The Junior Solar Sprint (JSS) is an educational program for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to design, build and race solar powered cars.  Goals of the program are to educate youth about solar power and renewable energy, get them interested in design and engineering at a young age with an exciting hands-on project, and to promote teamwork (as the cars have to be worked on in teams of 2-4 students).

This is an exciting year for the Cape & Islands JSS competition, as participation has doubled.  Student competitors from more than fifteen schools across Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and parts of Southeastern Massachusetts will gather to race their cars against peers from the area to determine the area winners.  Besides prizes for speed, cars will also be judged on and awarded prizes for craftsmanship, innovation, and technical merit.  Winners from the Cape & Islands Area race are also invited to compete in the Regional JSS Race, hosted by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA).

Additionally, as one of the most important goals of the JSS program is to teach students about solar power and renewable energy, there will be educational displays set up by local environmental organizations and groups that promote solar power and renewable energy.  The Renewable Energy Trailer, a traveling trailer equipped with a home scale hot water and photovoltaic panels as well as a small wind turbine, will be present to help orient people to the technologies.

For more information on this event, interested parties should contact the Self-Reliance office at (508) 563-6633, email alheureu@gmail.com, or visit us on the web at http://www.reliance.org.          

Release courtesy of Cape & Islands Self-Reliance.   

Cape & Islands Self-Reliance was founded in 1980 to identify, facilitate and educate the public about sound environmental practices that help protect our ecosystem. By educating and empowering the consumer, Self-Reliance acts as a catalyst in implementing cost-saving, pollution-reducing opportunities for homeowners, businesses and municipalities. Self-Reliance’s community-supported buying cooperative was established over 20 years ago to place the purchasing power in the hands of the consumer by enabling citizens of Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts to buy necessary services at affordable group rates.