São Paulo – From November 16th to 19th in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, eight students from São Paulo’s Colégio Bandeirantes school are competing in the finals of the F1 in Schools project. The program has been sponsored by Formula 1 for the past 12 years, alongside partners in 40 countries, to encourage students from primary and high schools to design miniature race cars containing all of the parts that actual race cars have. The vehicles are created using a software program and then actual models are created that undergo aerodynamics tests until they are ready to compete.
The students from Bandeirantes are members of the “Força Canindé” (Canindé Force) team, named after the Canindé macaw. Their project defeated two other projects from the same school, as well as students from four other schools.
The F1 project arrived in Brazil via a partnership between the physicist and marketing specialist Manoel Belem and the Formula 1 organizers. Belem brought other technology-related projects to the country and had an opportunity to work with Formula while developing a spatial experiments program with schools.
“We would spend a lot of time on the concepts and little time on project execution. When the opportunity came up to work with Formula 1 things got easier, because everybody is aware of it. This way we can take more time with the projects,” said Belem.
According to him, the organizers aim to spot talents who can eventually work in F1 teams and car design. “As far as we are concerned, the project is based on four pillars: improving students’ abilities; collectively building knowledge together with the teachers; fostering entrepreneurship; and rekindling the relationship between parents, students and teachers,” he said.
The winners
The F1 in Schools teams have a student in charge of marketing, another in charge of project development, another for communication etc. Formula 1 provides a manual that sets forth the rules for project design, the specifications for the models to be built, and the computer programme with which they are created. The schools involved in the project were required to pay in order to participate, and the students’ families or sponsor companies paid for their trip to Abu Dhabi.
The Chemistry coordinator at Colégio Bandeirantes, Ricardo Almeida was one of the supervisors of the “Força Canindé” team, in partnership with Cristiana Assumpção, teacher and Special Projects coordinator, and Franco Ramunno, the Chemistry teacher. Almeida said one of the outcomes of the project was the fact that students have set out seeking knowledge and perform their individual tasks while working as a team.
“These students will surely be better prepared once they get on the labour market. In this winning group, each member played their own role while everyone was able to work in tandem,” he said. The team won because it had the highest score in seven different items judged by the project’s jury. The score for maximum speed, which can be as high as 80 kilometres per hour, is worth 25% of the final score. This, however, is only one of the aspects that were judged. Grades were also given to the group’s marketing project, oral presentation, adherence to technical specifications, portfolio and stand design, among others.
According to Belem, the goal for 2015 is to make this project viable for public schools in Brazil to enter. At another school in this year’s edition, FourC, from Bauru, São Paulo, even younger students got involved. According to the general director, Sara Hughes, students averaging at 12 years old formed teams where each also had specific jobs. The school did not win, but Hughes said the project provided encouragement.
“We already mentor our children, naturally, to consider new possibilities, to think of solutions, of projects. They know that if they want to learn something, they will, and they don’t have to lie around waiting for someone to teach them. When we showed them the project, they were excited about designing a car and competing,” Hughes said.
Award
From November 16th to 19th, the “Força Canindé” team students, Belem, his partner Waldemar Battaglia and teacher Franco Ramunno are competing in the finals in Abu Dhabi. There, the students and their knowledge will be again put to test by the jury. They will visit the Yas Marina circuit, where the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is held yearly. They will also meet pilots and professionals from F1 teams, dine and see Abu Dhabi’s F1 theme park Ferrari World.
Teams from 40 countries will be competing. All members of the winning team will be awarded a scholarship for graduate and post graduate courses in engineering or related areas at London’s City University. The F1 in Schools finals and award ceremony are always held in one of the last circuits of the F1 race championship. Last year, the award was delivered in Austin, Texas, United States. Brazil may host the finals in 2016.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum & Rodrigo Mendonça
