Zooming into Science: Balloon-Powered Cars Take Over Serra Park

Balloon-powered cars, high-speed testing, and excited children filled Serra Park as the. Edward Pan, a junior at The King’s Academy and a dedicated hardware specialist for his FTC Robotics team, stepped out of the robotics lab to lead an afternoon of hands-on experiments designed to teach physics concepts to elementary school children. The debut of the Sunnyvale chapter of STEM Inspire held its latest community education event at Serra Park this past week featuring custom-designed balloon-powered cars and curious future-engineers.

Participants learned foundational physics principles by building and testing their vehicles, discovering how the “waiting” elastic potential energy of a stretched balloon transforms into kinetic “moving” energy as the balloon pushes out air through the straw, propelling the car forward. By using engaging analogies, and comparing the cars to floating slingshots and space rockets, Edward successfully broke down complex ideas like thrust, potential energy, kinetic energy, and Newton’s Third Law for his young audience.

At first, when Edward built the models, the original skinny straws he brought did not allow enough air to pass through and make the cars move. So, with some quick thinking and extra boba straws, Edward was able to modify the cars on the fly to get them in motion! True to his engineering background, Edward guided the students through the troubleshooting process, teaching them how to tweak and improve their designs rather than giving up.

The parents were equally as excited about the event as the children, and were eager to learn if Edward would do any presentations at other locations. If you’re in the city of Sunnyvale, look out for Edward’s Ballon-powered cars coming to a local library near you!