Rocket Car Challenge
Rocket powered cars were seen travelling at incredible speeds across the netball courts on Thursday. Inspired by the efforts of the Bloodhound SSC team in their attempt to build the world’s first 1000 mph car, pupils in the First Year have all been working in their computing, science, 3D and maths lessons to design and create their own cars powered by a solid rocket motor.
Pupils were provided with a rectangular block of Styrofoam and some wheels. From this they were challenged to design what they thought would be the fastest car to travel along a 35 metre race track. They could not control the thrust provided by the solid rocket motor, but they could use their knowledge of forces, weight and aerodynamics from their Science lessons to design a car to travel as fast possible. They then sculpted their designs in 3D lessons with many also giving up their lunchtimes. The cars were also fitted with Microbit technology, which students learned to program in their computing lessons, to enable them to record forces such as acceleration as well as being used for the timing gates.
The winning team were Lorcan, Pia, Erin and Yoyo who averaged an incredible speed of 33.59 mph along the 35m track. They will now progress to the regional finals.
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