• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Official Student Paper of Riverside Poly High School

Poly’s multivariable class finishes model motocross track

May 11, 2015

MOTOCROSS: After months of planning, designing and building, the motocross “Dream Track” has been completed.

By Emily Hughes, Staff Writer

Poly’s multivariable calculus class, a coalition of some of Poly’s best and brightest math students, has just finished its semester-long project of designing and building a motocross track. As an extension of the Poly Motocross Program, the project allowed these students to use their mathematical skills to explore the applications of design and construction in the motocross world.

The members of Poly’s motocross program prepared for the task of designing their own model track by visiting the motocross track set up in Angel Stadium and taking measurements of a well-trodden practice track located an hour outside of Riverside. Poly students collected the information they needed through conversations with professionals and then came up with a design on which they would base the model track. Over the remaining course of the school year, this design morphed from a paper draft to a 3D model.

According to Jarett Guillow (12), the design for the track started off as “too elaborate,” and obtaining the proper materials for the design would have been too complicated. To combat this issue, the class decided to use a light material, Styrofoam, to build the track. Using hot wire, the students cut into the Styrofoam and assembled the pieces to form the model. “We eventually would take the spray glue, spray some glue on [the track] and put sand on it,” Guillow described. After the track model was in order, the students decorated and designed the rest of the stadium. The students constructed stands of balsa wood and rods. Green moss was placed on one area of stands, and the students even recreated the iconic Angel Stadium rock waterfall. Printed pictures of cheering fans that were glued to the stands added the finishing touch to the stadium.

The design for the track is something of an innovation. To allow maximum fairness for the racers, the track does not have one starting line, but two. This gives riders less of an advantage over one another and allows for a more exciting competition. The two beginning lanes meet later in the course where the riders fight to reach the front of the pack. The track has appropriate whoops and berms and a “Joker Lane,” or an alternate lane that each rider must take at least once per race.

Overall, the multivariable class was pleased with the final product. All members of the class signed their names on the poster board and the class’ teacher, Mr. Eric Oravets, said of the track, “I’m very happy with it. I think it exceeded all our expectations.”

The class will be exhibiting the model track to Principal Dr. Michael Roe later this week, and from there, it may even become a reality. Both the students and Oravets enjoyed the process along with its final result.  “Watching them work together and come up with the ideas, and then [seeing] it all to come together into a final product; who could ask for more than that?” Oravets noted.

 

Translate »