Pupils' Names to go 1000mph
Pupils from the Royal Alexandra and Albert School beat other teams to have their names on a car that aims to break the land speed record. Nineteen high-achieving pupils from Year 9 visited the Bloodhound Engineering Adventure Project in Reading. The project is connected to Bloodhound SCC, the next British attempt to break the land speed record by travelling at 1000mph in 2016.
Britain has been involved with the land speed record for the last one hundred years and Bloodhound SCC is the latest project. Although their ultimate aim is to break the land speed record set in 1997 by ThrustSCC, the Project aims to inspire school children from the ages of five to nineteen to become engineers and scientists of the future.
During the day at the Bloodhound Engineering Project, the Year 9 pupils took part in a number of different workshops. The first was a show and tell where engineers from the Project went through the Bloodhound’s technology and different car components. Pupils then had the opportunity to design and build a car propelled by a rocket.
Pupils from the Royal Alexandra and Albert School and another school split up into groups to come up with a concept. The winner with the best car would have their names written on the tail fin of the actual Bloodhound SCC car. As expected, the competition was fierce, but one of the Royal Alexandra and Albert teams won!
The winning team included four pupils, William Clark, Matthew Misquita, Oliver Sosabowski and Jonathan Self. Will said of their win, “We had a really fantastic day. I was so excited to have won, especially because our names are going to be on the Bloodhound tail fin.”
Jonathan agrees, “That was the highlight of the day. Everything was very interesting but getting to build a car from Connects pieces and then winning was the best.”
The trip seems to have made the Year 9 pupils think about their futures and whether they would like to be involved in science and engineering. Jonathan said of his future career, “I think I would like to go into the sciences, but I want focus on dentistry rather than engineering.”
Will, however, was inspired by the technology he saw. “I’ve thought about being an aerospace engineer. I think that’s what I would like to do.”
Miss Ingrid Rolland, teacher of Physics at School, was one of the trip leaders. She said of the day, “The purpose of our visit was to inspire our pupils to consider pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by giving them an insight into the amazing Bloodhound project. In all, it was an inspirational day which reinforced a Year 9 Science topic on the scheme of work and hugely benefitted pupils who attended.”
February 2015
