The F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix awards ceremony held on March 17th at Sydney’s Eastern Creek International Raceway was historic for many reasons.
A Tasmanian school won the top National Champion - Professional Class award, a Ballarat school produced a National Champion team two years in a row, and the event was staged in Sydney for the ?rst time in its seven year history.
After two days of judging across 11 different criteria - from innovation and engineering to collaboration with industry and public speaking - the nation’s best 26 student F1 teams awaited the announcement of the F1 18 awards.
Master of Ceremonies Dr Rob Bell, presenter of Network Ten’s “Scope” science program, was joined by a host of VIP guests in handing out the awards.
They included Senator Cory Bernardi, Defence Materiel Organisation’s Head of Commercial & Industrial Programs Mark Reynolds (DMO is the national sponsor), Regional Development Australia - Sydney Executive Of?cer Bob Germaine, Chief Judge Garry Wood - a director at IBM and Chief Scrutineer Dr Warren Smith - from the Australian Defence Force Academy.
“Pentagliders” from Brooks High School in Tasmania were voted the best Professional Class team and 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 Ef?cient Design.
For teacher Murat Djakic it was an emotional moment having made it to the F1 in Schools Australia Grand Prix several times without winning “the big one”.
Teacher Christoff Muller from Ballarat South Community Learning Precinct, formerly known as Sebastopol College, won that title in 2010 and took his team to the World Championships where they finished 5th against 22 other countries.
He will be packing his bags again in 2011 for the World Championships in Malaysia due to “Lightspeed” being voted the best Development Class “rookie” team.
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 State High School, QLD).
• Cisco Webex Outstanding Industry Collaboration (Professional Class): “Pulse Racing” (Townsville State High School, QLD).
• Cisco Webex Outstanding Industry Collaboration (Development Class): “F1 Super Geeks” (Pine Rivers State High School, QLD).
Organisers Re-Engineering Australia Foundation unveiled 2 new awards:
• Encouragement (Professional Class): “Badgy Budgies” (Badgingarra Primary School, WA).
• Encouragement (Development Class): “Comet” (Family Learning Co-operative, WA).
• Best Energy Ef?cient Design (Professional Class): “Pentagliders” (Brooks High School, TAS).
• Best Energy Ef?cient Design (Development Class): “Comet” (Family Learning Co-operative, WA).
The Founders Award was presented by REA Foundation Founder and Chairman Michael Myers to Melbourne teacher Peter Clinton from Trinity Grammar.
A long time advocate of the F1 program, Peter’s 2006 team became world champions and this year he was back with two more teams.
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.