The Pinewood Derby

Aaron's Car:

On Saturday Aaron participated in his first pinewood derby. It's a big deal to the scouts and it is an interesting process. Aaron and Andy worked together to create vehicle. Kara and I bought the kit and the weights and then stayed out of the way. Aaron told Andy the design and shape he wanted and Andy drew the outline on the car. Then they chopped and sanded and refined the shape. Andy painted it red and Aaron put on the stickers. It was a very neat looking car.

They raced within their own dens (age level) and then the winners of that raced each other at the end. There was also a race that family members could enter just for fun. The track was wooden and consisted of four lanes. To make the racing fair each car raced four times, once in each lane. Every time Aaron raced he consistently made third. However, overall he didn't place. He was a bit disappointed so we tried to head that off with trying to figure out how to improve our car. Was it the paint job, the stickers, the wheels, the design, the number of weight or the placement of the weights? With prompting he came up with a lot of different variables that would maybe affect the outcome of the race, so it was a science/math lesson as well. Very neat. He did get the scoutmaster award for participation and hard work so that was good too. Andy and I also thought of a few ways that Aaron could be more involved in the creating process so that next year it will be more Aaron's work than Andys.

The carving:


Sanded down:

Adding the decals

Finished decals


The track:

The test drive:

The competition:

Aaron's car crossing the finish line:

Aaron's award:

The end of a fun race: