TASMANIAN HISTORY-MAKING F1 RACE TEAM TO REPRESENT
Dated: 24/03/2011
The "Pentagliders" from Brooks High School are the newest National Champions of the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge which involves over 30,000 high schoolers in designing, making and racing miniature F1 cars using space-age engineering and wind tunnel software - as used by NASA - and industry standard manufacturing equipment.
The four students represented Tasmania for the second year in a row in the F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix and this time they beat all other 25 teams and earned their place in Team Australia 2011 which is bound for the F1 in Schools World Championships in Malaysia.
"Pentagliders" returned home with three major awards having also won the Australian Grand Prix Corporation Fastest Car Award with a sizzling 1.066 seconds down the race track and the award for Best Energy Efficient Design.
Pentagliders are the first Tasmanian team to become national champions in the program which began in 2004 and was brought to Australia by the not for profit organisation, Re Engineering Australia Foundation. F1 in Schools is the world's largest STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) program involving over 9,000,000 high school students in 33 nations.
Pentagliders, who are proudly supported by Rio Tinto, underwent two intense days of judging across 11 different criteria - from innovation and engineering to collaboration with industry and public speaking. They were competing against the nation's best 25 student F1 teams.
Lightspeed from Ballarat, are the new F1 in Schools Development Class National Champions, and with their 2011 Team Australia colleagues the Pentagliders from Tasmania will represent Australia at the F1inSchools World Final where Australia has had an enviable record of success over the past 7 years.
The F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix was held at Sydney's Eastern Creek International Raceway and included rides in a rally car with four times Australian champion Neal Bates on the water-soaked skid pan...a tour of the Radical Australia workshop where they build exotic open seater race cars...and the chance to sit in historic open wheeler F1 cars built by the legendary Sir Jack Brabham. ABN: 12 095 876 323 Unit 11, 3 Packard Avenue Castle Hill NSW 2154 Australia PO Box 136, Castle Hill NSW 1765 Phone: 1300 204 478 Int. Facsimile: +61 2 8079 0622 Email: contact@rea.org.au Internet: www.rea.org.au
The award winners were:
National Champion (Professional Class): "Pentagliders" (Brooks High School, TAS)
National Champion (Development Class): "Lightspeed" (Ballarat South Community Learning Precinct, VIC)
National runner-up (Professional Class): "Ace Pace Racing" (Mirani State High School, QLD)
National runner-up (Development Class): "Velocity" (Newington College, NSW)
DMO Best Engineered Design (Professional Class): "Aero" (Trinity Grammar School, VIC)
DMO Best Engineered Design (Development Class): "White Lightening" (Pioneer State High School, QLD)
AGPC Fastest Car (Professional Class): "Pentagliders" (Brooks High School, TAS)
AGPC Fastest Car (Development Class): "Comet" (Family Learning Co-operative, WA)
Innovation (Professional Class): "Celerity" (Dubbo Christian School, NSW)
Innovation (Development Class): "m-pulse" (Marist College Canberra, ACT)
Best Team Marketing (Professional Class): "Cold Fusion" (Brighton Secondary School, SA)
Best Team Marketing (Development Class): "F1 Super Geeks" (Pine Rivers SHS, QLD)
Cisco Webex Outstanding Industry Collaboration (Professional Class): "Pulse Racing" (Townsville SHS, QLD)
Cisco Webex Outstanding Industry Collaboration (Development Class): "F1 Super Geeks" (Pine Rivers SHS, QLD)
Encouragement Award (Professional Class): "Badgy Budgies" (Badgingarra Primary School, WA)
Encouragement Award (Development Class): "Comet" (Family Learning Co-operative, WA)
Best Energy Efficient Design (Professional Class): "Pentagliders" (Brooks High School, TAS)
Best Energy Efficient Design (Development Class): "Comet" (Family Learning Co-operative, WA)
The Founders Award was presented by REA Founder and Chairman Michael Myers to Melbourne teacher Peter Clinton from Trinity Grammar. A long time advocate of the F1 program, Peterʼ 2006 team became world champions and this year he was back with two more teams.
