How many mousetraps does it take for a Ragland physics student to build a racecar? One. But a couple of long-playing record albums can come in handy.

When teaching physics, physical science and chemistry, Ragland High School teacher Toni Teal knows the importance of being innovative. That’s why she gave her students an assignment to build racecars. The one important item they all needed — a mousetrap.

“I got the idea from something I saw in a book,” Teal said. “I just handed my students a mousetrap and asked them to build a racecar. The only objective was they had to make it travel two meters, and they took it from there.”

Teal said this is the first time she has used this particular technique. In past yeas, she has given students all the materials but this year, she gave them only a mousetrap.

It was a mandatory project for all 26 of her students in this class.

Once the racecars were built, the students raced them in the high school gym. Colton Echols and John Arnold built the winning racecar. And they used just two wheels. The wheels were two huge record albums they purchased from a thrift store. Their racecar traveled the length of the basketball court.

Scotty Smith finished second.

“They all did an awesome job,” Teal said. “They were so excited about building and racing these cars. I was actually shocked when Colton and John asked me if the car had to have four wheels. I told them I was not sure how it would go without four wheels but they figured it out with two wheels.”

Echols said they got the idea of using the two big records from the Internet.

“We got on Youtube and looked up rattraps and this particular design popped up,” Echols said. “We did not know if it would work or not until we tested it the night before.”

Arnold said he and Colton have always been partners, and they decided to team up on this adventure as well and just beat everybody.