F1 Cheetahs - A Roaring Success (May-2009)
We were very excited when our teachers told us about the F1 in Schools project, which sounded fun. We had to design and make a car, get sponsorships, design outfits and a website.
We started working on the five-page plan. After brainstorming, we made our decisions on the role for each person on the team and chose the name for the team. After two weeks of hard work, and a few "snarling" moments, we finally finished the short portfolio - the day before the deadline! We sent it off to the judges in F1 in Schools and breathed a sigh of relief. A few days later, we got a letter saying that we had qualified for the next round - the regional final. We were absolutely delighted! We rolled up our sleeves and got on with the hard work. Lydia had the responsibility of designing a website for the team. We decided on the name, www.teamcheetahs.com and the main colours: yellow, orange and black to represent the cheetah. I had to design a car, using SolidWorks, a Computer-Aided Design, which was very difficult, as I have no experience of using CAD. We used the tutorial to learn the basics, but the problem with the tutorial is that when we couldn"t understand something, we could not ask for help. So we asked a college student if she could volunteer to teach us the basics of CAD. After that it was much easier. Donna was responsible for getting sponsorships and marketing. Avril had to research for "freebies" and outfits for the team as well as making sure the car was as aerodynamic as possible. This led to many changes in the car design. On the day of the Regional Final, we were very excited but also nervous, as we didn"t know what to expect. Would the competition be difficult? Was our car good enough? They were some of the worries we had but we still had a sneaking feeling that our project was fabulous! When we entered the hall, we saw other teams preparing their stands. Some were very professional looking and others were quite plain. After we prepared our stand, the judges came over to have a look and ask some questions. They grilled us on marketing, car design, our website, the team dynamics and what we liked about the project. After lunch, the tension was mounting. At 3pm, it was time for the announcement. We waited anxiously but were thrilled to receive two awards: "Best Newcomer" and "Best Website", and we had qualified for the National Final. We were ecstatic! We brainstormed for new ideas to improve our chances at the National Final. We came up with an interactive DVD to test people"s knowledge on Formula 1. We asked Anne, the director from "Hands On", (a television programme for deaf people) and Kevin Mulqueen, to help with the filming and editing. We travelled down to Mondello Park, a racing track in Kildare, to film the DVD. We were allowed to sit in the Formula One car to ask our questions! It was a great privilege. After a long, tiring day of filming, we went to the IDS office with Kevin to edit the film. It was great fun and a good learning experience. The day of the National Final wasn"t as bad as the Regional Final as we knew what to expect. We prepared our stand, and had a look around at our competitors" stands. One of the team from the Regional Final had really made their stand look professional; they had an interactive quiz as well as a computer game. The competition was tough but that made it more fun. At the end of the day, we were very anxious as this was the National Final and a big occasion for us. We were absolutely thrilled to receive the "Best Newcomer" award. They presented us with a beautiful glass trophy. We went home, feeling very proud of ourselves. It was a wonderful day.
