The goal, as always, is to win the raise. But there was more at stake here, perhaps the future of young 6th graders and perhaps even America's ability to compete in a global marketplace.
These are the Plastcar competition at Penn State Erie. Area six graders are teamed with university engineering students to use engineering principals to build small plastic race cars that then compete with each other on a pair of graduated race tracks over 100 feet.
But the goal is more than a Winner's Cup. Organizers are hoping to build a love of building things into the students, a love that could lead to careers in engineering and the hard sciences.
Of particular interest are young women, since less than 10 percent of all American engineers are women.
"I hope the girls in 6th grade see me and will think that this is something I can get into," Penn State engineering student Maureen Cress told us. "to start to get involved and not be so shy."
The team from Rolling Ridge Elementary School in Harborcreek took home the top honor.
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