styrofoam cars run off magnets?

this was a construction technologies class.
Oak Canyon Jr. High School
-We didn’t really get to take notes in this class because Mr. Hunter had us helping the students.
-They were making cars out of Styrofoam and then they were going to race them using magnets.
-first they had to design/draw their car to scale. Once that was good enough they had to make an actual blueprint, and then they could start carving.
-some of the students were ahead and were allowed to do another assignment on the computer. It was a game where they designed and built a virtual house, but they had to deal with prices of materials, land, etc. Pretty interesting, but I think that kids can do that stuff at home. They’re already on the computer all the time at home anyway, I think when my students are in my classroom I’d like to make their primary interaction be with people, not computers.
-This teacher had a microphone he wore around his neck. Weird, I’ve never seen that before.
-These kids were cool. I like going around to help them and listen to them and ask them questions. Someteims I’m scared that when I’m a teacher I’m going to forget that I’m the one in charge and just hang out with my students! I’m pretty sure that won’t actually happen, but who really knows, you know?
-after his 1st period we got to go see the woodshop, and talk with the teacher. The class was the advanced one, and it was the last day of the semester so a few of the kids were doing catch-up, and the rest of them were just playing around. A lot of them were making Harry Potter wands.
-Those kids loved that teacher. And he knew how to get them excited about learning for sure! They made their own skateboard and long board decks, they made ties out of wood (which were actually really cool!) they made mini Pool tables and other awesome things!
-His philosophy was, if the kids are excited enough about what they can make, they will jump through a lot of hoops to get there (I.e. learning lots of things, memorizing safety rules, etc).
-There was one totally cute small boy by himself at a lathe across the room from everyone else. I fell in love with him right at the beginning! I hope those kids are nice to him.
-Two negatives:
-the woodshop was very dirty and cluttered and dusty. I want all of my classrooms and labs to stay very clean and in good shape, and I will teach my students to treat my stuff with respect.
-As the students were working, Mr. Hansen wasn’t paying very much attention to them. He was working on his own project on a different side of the lab from them. I would think that with middle-schoolers and power tools you might want to be a little more attentive. You can still communicate trust without being totally hands off. It was concerning to me, because what if something did happen, it would take him a long time to get over there to help the students react.