Who has a conflict with the student captain?
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. Cloudy weather would make their vehicle's battery capacity a more important factor than its weight.
With the shop teacher as chaperone, the students travel to Australia to compete in the World Solar Challenge. To the relief of their corporate sponsor, who is still bitter over the loss of his company-built vehicle in Hawaii, their car is delayed at the very start of the race. However, the students choose to persevere and remain in the race.
A sand storm and other difficulties provide occasions for heroism. Uni Kakamura pilots the car through difficult terrain, but has an accident and is rescued by Gilbert. After Cindy is disqualified from driving for drinking alcohol, Eduardo puts aside his "lolo-haole" conflict with Daniel and reduces the car to allow the overweight Gilbert to drive so that the team can finish the race.
Eduardo