Northwest Florida high school students pursuing STEM careers took to the track at Five Flags Speedway, racing custom-built electric go-karts as part of the Electrathon program.
- Using STEM principles, students from schools including Navarre High School designed and built the electric go-karts from the ground up while developing critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork skills along the way.
The program gives participants a chance to apply engineering concepts they’ve studied in the classroom to a real-world project with measurable results on race day.
For some students, the hands-on nature of the program is what makes it stand out from traditional coursework.
“It gets me a lot of hands-on work with mechanical things,” said Eysner Roque, a West Florida High School student. “Personally, I love to tinker with things and it’s a great way for me to build up and kind of have a stepping stone.”
Florida Power & Light Company supports the Electrathon America program at nearly 30 schools across the state, including five of the teams that raced at Five Flags Speedway.
The FPL-sponsored Northwest Florida schools represented at the race included Navarre High School, West Florida High School of Advanced Technology, Northview High School and Magnet Innovation Center…