23rd June -Technology Award

The Newport Club's Technology Award Competition took place from 22-24 June 2009, in the Newport YMCA. The eight schools that took part brought along their best coursework for entry into the upper and lower divisions on the competition and during today the judges were hard at work making their minds up on who the winners will to be. We had the usual high standard of work and the judges were finding it tough going.

A new venture for this year is the F1 Schools Challenge. Their website is http://www.f1inschools.co.uk/page--the-f1-in-schools-challenge.html

This competition is aimed at getting children more involved with many aspects of engineering. They get some materials and some CAD/CAM software and they have to design and build their version of an F1 model racer. They are predominately made of balsa wood to a tight specification and they are powered by a small CO2 cylinder, similar to those used for making fizzy drinks. The cars race along a twin track which has a nylon thread running down the middle of each lane to ensure the cars stay on the track. Some fancy electronics controls the launch and measures the timing with the driver having to follow the same lights procedure that an F1 racer has to at the start. The difference is that they squeeze a firing button when the lights go out. The cars then hurtle down the track and can reach 100mph before they are arrested at the end of the run. The competitors are marked on their adherence to the design specification, their reaction time to launch the cars and the time the car takes to complete the run. In the pictures you can see the judges at work, some of the cars, the scrutineer and two blurred cars racing along the track. This is deadly serious stuff for the children and the school staff and some of the designs are very innovative.

This was great fun to watch and to see the close involvement of the children. The finals and the presentations are tomorrow, but you have a flavour of what's involved.