A total of 50 students in Grade 5 and 6 attended the Formula 1 excursion on the 7th of April. The students left school at 9am sharp and travelled via bus to Albert Park. Once we arrived at one of the entrances, we made our way to the Tech Hub and got to see and hear the Formula 1 cars complete their practise laps. At the Tech Hub, there were lots of things that the students could experience such as: playing a reaction test game, driving on the Albert Park race course via a simulation game while sitting in a racing rig, participating in a simulation game to teach people how to drive, as well as look at and take photos with the 1:1 life-size LEGO Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car. We even got to hear Ryan McNaught, aka "The Brickman", talk about how him and his team took on the challenge to build the LEGO McLaren, how long it took and the difficulties behind it all.



One student in particular was invited to present her powerboat design in front of a panel of experts. This was none other than Angelica in Grade 6. She and two other school teams were chosen as the 3 finalists as part of the BAE Systems Challenge. The Grade 5 and 6 students at Silverton Primary School learnt about powerboats and the STEM principals associated in making them as fast as possible. These lessons included learning about buoyancy, hydrodynamics, boat hull types, fuel efficiency and hydrofoils. Angelica's design was chosen amongst the many that were submitted from Silverton Primary. She presented her design on stage in front of a big audience and should be congratulated on her efforts! After presenting on stage, Angelica was offered a Paddock Tour experience as a prize and got to see the cars being built and other behind-the-scenes work that happens before a race.

Here's what Angelica had to say about the day:

At first, when I was just about to present, I felt nervous… But as I went up on stage, I realised that I just need to be myself! The clumsy person that I am; I dropped the controller to move the slides before I could even say anything!

I had my hands full (literally). I had to hold the microphone controller and the 3D model of my powerboat in the same hand! Thank you to Mr Tang for printing out my powerboat model that I made on Tinkercad! The judges were really impressed! They also complimented me on how I worked by myself and not in a group like the other competitors.

Even though I got second place, I was very proud of myself! I also got very lucky because since the first-place team had to leave, they couldn't accept the VIP tour prize, so they gave it to me instead! I got to see the paddock and the garage full of racing cars!

It was exiting and cool to walk down the paddock! The people that went on the tour with us mentioned that it's practically impossible to buy a VIP ticket! I would like to thank Silverton Primary School for the many extra opportunities I was given in the STEM subject; which I’m very passionate about!

Honestly, there’s nothing more to say, my dad and I had a really good time together looking at the cars being built and all the behind-the-scenes work getting done before the race! I was very happy to share this experience with him!