AUBURN – Students from Auburn Middle School and Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls competed with their model cars at the Northeast Regional Junior Solar Sprint Championship on June 11 in Springfield, Mass.

The students, Jeremy Daigle, Christian Mitchell, Portia Lothrop, Randall Desmarais, Gabriel Hoy and Deseree Tanguay of Auburn Middle School and Meghan Rowe, Vitaly Krivorik and Chad Davis of Elm Street School, earned an invitation to attend the regional championship after their performance at the Maine area qualifier earlier this year.

The Junior Solar Sprint Championship, run by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, drew more than 250 top-performing middle school students from across the Northeast.

Students raced their model solar cars, up to two feet long, down a 20-meter track in a competition of speed and competed for three design awards: craftsmanship, innovation and technical merit. Throughout the day, students and parents investigated exhibits that included student-built, one-person electric vehicles, a solar ice cream cooler, a model fuel cell car demonstration, hybrid-electric cars and cars that run on bio-diesel.

For more information, visit www.nesea.org/education/jss.