For the engineering challenge, schools were invited to create electric cars. Milford and Beaver bought a kit for the body, and designed the vehicle's viscera on their own. San Juan and Farmington cars were all original, with Farmington using scrap from an F-16, Robinson said.

The five raced at Salt Lake Community College in early May. The goal was to go the farthest in an hour.

Winning Milford's technique: keep the pedal off the medal. Though its car clocked nearly 33 mph before the race, the car averaged 21.8 mph to avoid mechanical difficulties and pit stops.

That proved fortunate. Chain problems forced the Farmington Junior High car to the pits eight times, Robinson said. San Juan's car required two long pit stops because it threw a chain and at one point lost a steering wheel.

Kids helped each other, despite the thrill of competition, Swapp said.

"The sportsmanship at this race was just phenomenal," with teams sharing tools and gadgets in the pits, Swapp said. "Not that anyone won or lost. The cars ran, we helped each other out. It was just real, real crowning moment of glory for a teacher to see his kids be really, really good sports."

Robinson marketed the program to technology and engineering teachers earlier this summer, hoping to have 15 schools take up the engineering challenge this school year.

Robinson also hopes the competition can go beyond electric cars to robotics or hydroelectricity or other hands-on applications to get students excited about engineering.

But even if life leads participants to other careers, they will have benefited, Swapp said.

"A lot of these kids may never use this again. But they've done the research, been through a learning curve, and if they want to attempt something, they know they can," Swapp said. "I think that means a world in education."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com