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‘‘The key pieces of energy in daily life come from the sun,” Eric Coffman, senior energy planner with the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, told the children.

‘‘See those lights above?” he asked the children. They looked up. ‘‘Electricity was used to create that light, and it can go in reverse.”

All week, children learned about space science, specifically explorations on the moon.

‘‘When traveling in space, they use solar energy,” Coffman said.

Diane Monnier, senior librarian for children and adult services, said the Rockville Library has a science, business and cultural emphasis and the Interactive Science Series was the first program with a science theme.

The program was funded by a state grant specifically for space science programming.

As the children began building their cars, friends Elijah Jenkins and Caleb Fleming, both 10, talked about their interest in cars, both toys and real ones.

Jenkins said he has built cars like that before, as he began to read ahead in the instruction guide.

On the other side of the room, 9-year-old twins Joni and Jeremy Keaton were already racing their half-finished cars across the tables.

‘‘One, two, three, go!” Jeremy said as they pushed their cars across the table and erupted in laughter.

‘‘The library program worked out really well because in school — we’re in third grade — we’re learning about space in science and doing space projects,” Joni said.

Jeremy likes working with electronics in his spare time and said the solar-powered car project was especially fun out of all the programs that week.

Waliullah Rifai, 9, said he attended every program during the week and enjoyed it, but is aiming to be a doctor instead of an astronaut.

After the cars were finally constructed, the children went outside to take them for a test drive. Despite the cloudy weather, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds for a brief moment and cars went rolling in various directions across the Town Square plaza as the children went racing after them.

One girl held her car up facing the sun. ‘‘You can see when it works because the wheels start to turn,” she said.

But a moment later, the sun went back behind the clouds and the cars stopped in their tracks.

Joni and Jeremy didn’t make it outside in time to catch the sun, but said they plan to race their cars.

‘‘When it’s bright enough outside,” Joni said.