25-28 March

1
New Technologies inEducation

• F1 in Schools
• An international project
• concerned with
• Informational Technology
• in education
• Founder of the Project
  Andrew Denford
• Reporter Brian Spalding

2
What is F1 in Schools?

• F1 means Formula-1 car racing
• in Schools means that the participants in the
  project are teams of school pupils aged between
  11 and 18 years.

They use computer programs for the design,
production and testing of miniature racing cars.
3
What do the teams do?

• These miniature cars are manufactured from
  balsa (a soft kind of wood).

• They are propelled by rockets in the form of
  soda-water syphons
• Producing jets of carbon-dioxide gas.

4
Important dates

• The first national conference took place in
  the year 2000, in Great Britain.

• In 2002, already four countries were involved in
  the F1 in Schools project so it had become
  International.

Number of participating schools
5
Participating countries
The number of participating countries exceeds 20.
6
What do the teams do?

• Each team consists of betweeen 3 and 6 pupils.

• Each team prepares a business plan, with a
  financial basis and they proceed to secure
  sponsorship funds..

• With the help of the appropriate computer
  programs, they design the miniature racing cars
  with which they will compete.

7
What do the teams do?

• The aerodynamic characteristics of their designs
  are determined by means of a Virtual Wind
  Tunnel.
• This is a computer program embodying the
  scientific discipline known as Computational
  Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

8
The VirtualWind Tunnel
The computer program which they use is called
PHOENICS,

• It can be used on personal computers.
• A special graphical interface has been created so
  as to facilitate the use of the program by
  school-children.

9
Here are some more picturesillustrating the use
of the program
10
The latest interface forthe Virtual Wind Tunnel
The latest interface makes use of Prelude,
which provides Gateways to PHOENICS which focus
on particular applications.
It is simple enough to be used by the youngest
children.
11
What do the teams do?

• The predictions of the Virtual Wind Tunnel are
  checked against measurements in a real Wind
  Tunnel..

• Using machine-control computer programs, the
  teams create the instructions which will cause
  lathes or milling machines to create their
  models.

12
The Competition

• Then the models are raced, two at a time, in a
  twenty-meter-long track.

There exist national and international
competitions and there is now even a Cup for the
Championship of the World.
13
Criteria and the prizes

• The judges consider not only the speed of the
  machines, but also
• the quality of design,
• the marketing skills demonstrated by the teams,
  and
• their presentation of the project.

In 2005, these five young Australians won
scholarships to study engineering at a London
University worth a total of 1.5 million dollars.
14
The founder of the project, Andrew Denford,
maintains that
with the assistance of modern computer
technology, pupils learn the elements of

• aerodynamics,
• mechanics,
• brand-management,
• marketind,
• teamwork,

• physics,
• design,
• graphics,
• sponsoring,
• leadership,

• financial strategy

and all within a framework of friendly and
enjoyable rivalry.
Evidently, the rapid and extensive spread of the
project shows that Andrew Denford F1 in
Schools constitute the right formula!
15
Final remarks

• The web-site of the project is
• www.f1inschools.co.uk
• The computer program embodying the Virtual Wind
  Tunnel can be inspected, and tried out, in the
  Internet Café on the second floor of Pavilion 2,
  between 1100 and 1600 hrs of each day of the
  exhibition.

• All interested persons are cordially invited.

16
Among these flags, the space for Russias is free
All these countries have joined within the last
five years
??????, ?????????? ? 2006 ?.