Ready, Set, STEM!
STEM Activities with the Hess Stock car Racers
- Grades:
- K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12
Baylor College of Medicine and Hess Toy Truck have teamed up once again to bring exciting, hands-on STEM learning to classrooms with the 2025 Hess Stock Car Racers. The accompanying teacher guide invites students to explore physics, engineering, and mathematics through the high-speed world of racing.
Using the Hess Stock Car Racers—a large race car with sound effects and lights, and a small pull-back racer—students investigate key STEM concepts such as potential and kinetic energy, aerodynamics, gravity, and force. Through eight engaging activities, learners test models, design ramps and drag chutes, explore motion on curved and banked tracks, and apply math and measurement to race strategy and performance.
Designed for students in grades K–8, the activities in this guide support the Three Dimensions of Science Learning in the Next Generation Science Standards. Each can be presented individually, sequentially, or incorporated into existing STEM lessons. Learners are sure to get “revved up” as they explore energy, motion, and the science behind speed with the Hess Stock Car Racers.
The following STEM activities are included in the guide:
- Kinetic, Potential, Kinetic—ZOOM!: Students build and test models that show how the pull-back spring motor in the small Hess Stock Car stores and releases energy to make it go.
- Aerodynamics: Student teams work with the small Hess Stock Car to investigate the aerodynamic effects of car body design on performance.
- Gravity Grand Prix: Student teams investigate how various angles of an inclined plane effect the acceleration of the Hess Stock Cars due to gravity.
- Banked-Track Blast: Students learn why racetrack curves are banked and the forces involved in making high-speed racing turns.
- Running the Curves: Student teams measure racetrack lengths and plot the race line for the best chance of winning a race on a curved racetrack.
- Ramp It Up: Student teams construct an adjustable jump ramp and investigate how the angle of the ramp affects how far the small Hess Stock Car can jump.
- Stop!: Students design, construct, and test a deployable drag chute system for quickly stopping the Hess Stock Cars.
- Racing By the Numbers: Student teams explore some of the mathematics that go into winning a race.
Download: Ready, Set, STEM! - A STEM Exploration with the 2025 Hess Stock Car Racers
2025 Hess Stock Car Racers are available at (https://hesstoytruck.com/).
2025 Hess Stock Car Racers STEM Kits are NOT available through BioEd Online.