Earlier this month, two Harrodian teams made up of 13s and 14s pupils (Year 9–10) made their debut appearance at the STEM Racing in Schools Regional Final. Remarkably one of them, christened Hêje (above), excelled themselves by taking the overall winners title on the day.
The teams have been attending Mr Murray’s STEM ‘F1 for Schools’ and 'Build a Rocket Car' Club on Friday lunchtimes. These sessions have challenged them to develop skills in engineering, problem-solving and teamwork so they could design and build the fastest possible model F1 car.
We really worked hard to make sure our car was the closest it could be to the minimum weight, and we got it down to 67 grams
Hêje team member Daniel (14s)
The STEM Racing competition took place at RAF Benson near Wallingford, and brought together schools from across the West London region (including St Paul’s School, who fielded several teams). Our two teams represented the school in the Entry Level category for pupils in Year 10 and below.
The competition required teams to race the miniature F1-style car they had designed and built on an elevated track 20 metres long. To support their racing performance, pupils were also required to produce a design and engineering portfolio, deliver a five-minute presentation and create a pit display showcasing their project.
You just need a lot of passion, in order to keep driving the project forward.
Hêje team member Ethan (14s)
Hêje's team members — Eliot, Horace, Daniel, Ethan and Simon, all drawn from the 14s (Year 10) — created the fastest car (see leaderboard below) and, despite picking up a design penalty for the thickness of the wing, delivered a confident and well-organised presentation, looking the part in their own Hêje-logo hoodie creations and convincing the judges to award them first prize.
As a group they worked hard to produce the best model car they could, as Daniel explains. "We really worked hard to make sure our car was the closest it could be to the minimum weight, and we got it down to 67 grams. Our goal was to make it as aerodynamic as possible too and so we worked really hard with software programmes like Fusion and tested it in a virtual wind tunnel too."
F1 is just one of the eight weekly STEM clubs on offer
When asked about the skill set needed to take part in the competition, fellow team mate Ethan adds: "You just need a lot of passion, in order to keep driving the project forward. It is really time consuming and you have to be prepared to learn lots of new things - some of which you have to do in your own free time."
The second team, Auto Veloci, made up of 13s pupils, Zachary, Dylan, Frederick, Săsa and Rohan impressed with their commitment, confidence and teamwork as well as the speed of their car.
Both teams performed strongly across the different elements of the event and can be very proud of their efforts.
F1 is just one of the eight weekly STEM clubs on offer at Harrodian and Mr Murray remains keen to build on this by continuing to add further co-curricular clubs to the school's STEM co-curricular portfolio.