Students get hands-on experience during 500 Festival education program
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WISH) — Some local fourth grade students recently got their very own racing experience at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
More than 7,000 students recently participated in the 500 Festival and Indianapolis 500 Education Program and some of them capped off the experience with a study trip to IMS.
“They arrive here and their eyes light up. They are so excited about touching the track and kissing the yard of bricks and taking their pictures on it,” Lindsay Labas, 500 Festival vice president of marketing and communications, said.
Students like Gavin Williams, who attends Decatur Township schools, enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes look at the track and the garage area.
“I like seeing the racecars and the trucks back there,” Williams said.
The students also took part in activities based on the state’s academic standards.
One of the interactive stations, led by instructor Timdrick Stewart, was about the Soap Box Derby. Stewart showed the students how to build their own toy model of a Soap Box Derby car and how to race them while having fun and incorporating science, technology, and math.
“When I was a kid racing [in the Derby], I had never been to the 500 track until I started participating in this program until this year. This is something that is new and I think it is giving us the exposure and opportunity for kids to learn more about us,” Stewart said.
Stewart says the program gives kids a chance to explore careers in STEM and exposes them to something outside of their normal environment.
One student, Bulloch Academy’s Sergio Rivera, says he had a great time putting his model Soap Box Derby car on a super slide and estimating how fast it would go.
“It looks so cool,” Rivera said. “They were so fast on that track. I was just amazed on how good they were.”
If students are interested in trying out the big Soap Box Derby cars, they can sit inside one at Indianapolis Soap Box Derby on May 14 at Wilbur Shaw Memorial Hill. They’ll get a chance to get inside one of the big cars, go down the hill, and test it out to see if they like it. The Indianapolis Soap Box Derby Club also has a car adoption program to get kids started.