Bowen Students Race For Top Spot

A group of Whitsunday students travelled to Brisbane to compete in a state-level STEM contest that saw their school raise $20,000 in sponsorship for a region-new program.

Bowen State High School Year 8 and 9 students travelled to the Queensland capital for the F1 in School’s State Finals from October 30 to November 3.

In their first time entering the competition, the local school saw several of its F1 Academy Classes – who participated throughout the year in a program which saw them design and race their own miniaturised Formula 1 race cars – qualify for state level at the F1 in School’s Regional Finals in mid-June in Mackay.

Teachers Katie Broomfield, Ben Davies, and Kayne Fayolle travelled with the students to Brisbane for the program which Mr Fayolle said the program “not only gets students working in teams, it also provides them with industry applicable skills, most notably through the use of industry-level computer programs.”

“They use Computer Assisted Design and a CNC Router Machines where anything they’ve designed in the program can be automatically cut, milled or anything like that,” he said.

“In this instance, they were creating cars, collating the data, testing it, and making a better design for competition.”

The F1 competition involves teams designing their own F1 car model with consideration given to Newton’s Laws of Motion, Aerodynamics, weight, friction, and other key principles of physics.

For the program’s success astounding success in its first year, Bowen State High School’s Senior School Head of Teaching, Tim Close, said they needed to thank both minor and major sponsors who helped them raise $20,000 dollars towards the F1 classes.

Mr Close said the students at the event made an outstanding effort and represented the school in perfect fashion, especially as it was their first year in the program.

“There are some schools who have been a part of it for 20 years, from the inception, and we were up there competing with them in our first year,” Mr Close said.

“We had a strong performance and the positives are that we can hopefully go again next year and send them through to nationals.”

The competition took place at Queensland University of Technology at the Gardens Point Campus with 27 students competing across the program’s distinct Development and Cadet in their self-named teams: Nitrous, Fast Finishers, C-TA, Rapido, KG Racing, Wescon, and Apollo Racing.

Mr Close said the school was extremely proud of the students and of the teaching team as part of a “massive, whole school effort.”

“The commitment by the actual classroom teachers with six-months of pedagogy and other staff members who have stepped in, as well as the students is exemplary,” he said.

“We are very excited to improve these programs in the future and produce the quality of the cars and the quality of their presentation in years to come.”

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Bowen State High School Student’s headed to Brisbane for the State Finals of the F1 in School’s in early November

The school hosted a sponsorship night for its major sponsors and minor sponsors who raised $20,000 dollars towards the program’s implementation