Grand Prix inspires young Detroiters to think big

Via Detroit News

When people hear or think about the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, it’s natural that mental images often go to race cars, fast speeds and world-class drivers.

Yet when Detroit Public School students like Arianna Carter and Declavius Branch reflect on the Grand Prix weekend, they think of ‘friction, momentum and kinetic energy.’

The two seventh-graders at Hutchinson Middle School recently talked about how their hands-on experiences with the Fifth Gear program, sponsored by PNC and now in its fourth year at the Grand Prix, has impacted their educational experiences in the Detroit Public Schools.

Both young people were part of last year’s program at Belle Isle, which has grown this year to 700 students of many age groups invited to attend on Thursday, May 28. There, racing professionals will show kids how science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can positively impact students’ futures. Engineers from Chevrolet and its racing partner Ilmor Engineering, along with professional race car drivers, will spend most of that day using various elements of the fast-paced racing environment to bring classroom lessons to life.

Carter said last year’s trip to Belle Isle helped her learn more about science vocabulary and even produced an urge to potentially be a race car driver.

“Words like friction,” she said, “an example of friction is brakes on a car. An example for kinetic is books falling and an example for potential energy is a rock at the top of a hill.”

‘It’s all based on STEM’

The Grand Prix also engaged high school students from the Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody High School in Detroit through its partnership with Comerica Bank. Winning TUDOR SportsCar Championship drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor visited the school to meet with students over the winter and on Friday, May 29, about 30 DIT students will visit the Grand Prix to meet with drivers and racing executives about STEM-related careers in racing as part of Comerica Bank Free Prix Day activities.

Charlie Kimball, driver of the No. 83 Chip Ganassi Chevy in the Verizon IndyCar Series, grew up in a household where his dad engineered race cars in Formula One and IndyCar. Kimball said working with kids to show them all sides of racing, including how racing technology inside the car monitors his glucose to stabilize his Type 1 diabetes, is significant.

To read more, please click here.