Jaguar Primary School Challenge – Regional Finals
10:00 hrs – 23/05/17 – RAF Cosford
As proud sponsors of Perry Halls F1 in Schools team, we quickly accepted the invitation to watch the regional finals held at the iconic RAF Cosford Museum.
Nestled in between a Pave Low Helicopter and several other historic aircraft, was 12 displays by 12 individual teams of primary school children.
They all had one thing in common, to win the F1 In Schools challenge hosted by Jaguar Land Rover. (For details of the challenge, please visit the “Next Generation Engineers” post)
We were amazed at the level of detail that the pupils had put in, from the portfolios and pit displays to the final design of the cars they had built to race.
Countless hours’ worth of work in CAD and CAM programs came down to this day, the Regional Final.
The winner of this stage will advance to the National final, so there was a lot at stake.
Judge & Jury
The judging criteria are into several categories: Pit Display & Portfolio, Verbal Presentation, Specification, Engineering, and finally, the car’s speed on the track.
Each of these categories has judging teams who use key performance indicators to award points to the groups: pit Display, Portfolio, Verbal Presentation, Specification, and Engineering.
We took the opportunity to follow the judging panel round to each team. Hearing how the pupils talked about how they tested different designs, choosing the team names and branded their vehicles was inspiring. It showed how the project had helped them develop new skills.
The judging took us through lunchtime.
Go Go Go!!
After a well-deserved bite to eat, we returned to the iconic Pave Low, where we saw the Jaguar Land Rover team had set the track up.
It consisted of a two-lane, elevated drag-strip, complete with start and finish lines. There were two triggers and a launch system at the start line in front of a countdown and timed grid board. The board displayed counters for reaction times and overall drag time.
The Jaguar Land Rover team then attaches tiny gas canisters when they were ready to race and then attached to the track by nylon wire.
When everything is setup ready, the start board is lit up, and the countdown begins. Just like the Formula 1, when the lights go out its go go go!
It takes around 1.2 seconds for the cars to fly down the 20-meter strip to the finish line, followed by a roar of cheers from each of the school’s teams.
Each team raced each other using the reaction racing mechanism twice in each lane.
Awards anybody?
After the race had finished, all the day’s scores are tallied up, and the winners announced in the presentation room.
Every judging category had a winner, then a final 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
The overall winner was the one going through to the National finals.
The room fell silent as the judges started to call up the winners of the earlier judging categories.
Unfortunately, Perry Hall School didn’t make it into the national finals. However, they did win the Pit Display and Portfolio award. A big congratulations and a brilliant first year at the F1 in Schools challenge.
To wrap up
Overall, the day was brilliant, and all teams had done an outstanding job and shown a passion for engineering.
The Jaguar Land Rover team has set up a fantastic project that pushes the children into new learning areas and a glimpse of real-world experience. Putting them in groups with other children they hadn’t spoken to before brought some of the shyer children out of their shell.
We want to say thank you to Perry Hall School, especially Danielle, for allowing us to be involved in such a fantastic project.
Also, thank you to Mrs Mees for inviting us down to the regional finals, and last but not least, the Jaguar Land Rover team for their hospitality.
For more information on F1 In Schools project, visit here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_in_Schools
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