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Building success with a race car project

Since 2005, students at l'École secondaire catholique de Plantagenet have built and rebuilt dirt-track racing cars from scratch. The success of the previous projects have created great interest and enthusiasm within the school and the community. The students build the car during the school year to satisfy the curricular requirements of their mechanics courses. During the race season, the pit crew is composed of many students. We use this innovative project as a key to motivate students in their academic subjects, students who struggle in the school system. It has proved a winning strategy as we retain students who may otherwise leave school.

With the help of sponsors within the community, we try to instil a love of learning and to inspire the students to greater achievements by helping them uncover their talents and abilities. Sponsors are necessary as this a self-funding project. "There is never a dull moment. We have fun. We design, invent and build stuff every day of the year. "Keeping students, who don't fit very well elsewhere in the academic system, motivated in a project that permits them to succeed is extremely challenging but so very rewarding."