A new science teacher, Miss Sandra Beecher (Halle Berry), at Kona Pali High School in Hawaii pushes a group of students to come up with a science project. With a combination of design vision, mechanical skills, knowledge of batteries, and lightweight drivers, the students design and build a solar-powered car they name "Cockroach." Their team manages to outperform a corporate-sponsored car and win the local Big Island competition by correctly predicting cloudy weather based on the surfing experience of the student captain, Daniel (Casey Affleck). Cloudy weather would make their vehicle's battery capacity a more important factor than its weight.