F1 in Schools Update
On Assembly last week, two members of Team Aqueous presented a speech of their recent experiences at the International Finals of the F1 in Schools Competition. Here is their speech:
Throughout these past holidays Charlie and I have had the opportunity to go to Newington College to participate in the F1 in Schools International Finals. This competition was the result of many hours of work over four competitions, working our way through to winning the National finals and being able to represent Australia on a global stage, where we finished 19th in the world and being nominated for the Scuderia Ferrari Team Identity Award.
The F1 in Schools competition has given us the opportunity to really push ourselves., learning to use CAD software to model our cars, leading a team of people and collaborating with the product design and manufacturing industries. Through this we have learnt a multitude of skills, in Engineering and life, and learnt to see a project through to completion.
Enough about us, let's talk about the largest high school STEM competition, consisting of 17,000 schools, across 44 countries. The Australian team is one of the most successful in F1 in Schools. But if engineering, CAD and manufacturing aren't your forte, that’s ok, F1 in Schools has plenty more to offer than just engineering: it’s all about teamwork. The comp allows anyone to grow their skills in project management, graphic design, public speaking and much more.
We started our monumental F1 in Schools journey in the DNT classroom in Year 9. F1 was the primary reason we joined D&T; we both saw [BMGS Team] Thrust Vector compete and were amazed by the opportunity to compete nationally. Of course, at the time, we didn’t actually expect Perpetrol - our original team of Henry Burrell, Jayden Gibson, Casper Larkin, Bill Klein and I - to even make it through to Regionals... until we did, securing second place. After that we were hooked and it was on to the State competition. The State competition highlighted some poor time management skills, which we labeled as “learning opportunities.” However, despite these “learning opportunities'' we still secured a 2nd Place position and headed off to Nationals.
By the time of the Nationals were on, we were a well oiled machine; we had taken all that we had learned and applied it to our National campaign. The final day was a rollercoaster. By the time they announced the winner we had counted our blessings and were sure we hadn't placed. Fortunately, placing 2nd in almost all of the Awards meant we had actually won, taking us to the international competition!
At the end of the day, no matter how exhausting the workload may be, F1 in schools was a bunch of fun. The sense of comradery and satisfaction of submission is what makes this competition so great.
Here's a team reveal video https://youtu.be/M0vje-61lDY
Charlie Burgess and Bill Klein (Year 11)