On Saturday, May 24 from 2 to 4pm, the Western Academy of Beijing will host China’s national F1 in Schools competition. But some of the students don’t even have their driver’s license, so how is this possible? It’s possible because students will be racing as part of F1 in Schools, a highly technical after school activity, in which WAB students design, build, and race small wooden cars.

WAB’s team, Horse Power, will compete with the Experimental High School Associated with Beijing Normal University at the event as a way to prepare for 2014 F1 in Schools World Finals, an annual international competition. This year, team Horse Power Horse will represent China at the competition in Abu Dhabi.

F1 in Schools is a global multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams are composed of students ages 9 to 19. The annual competition has students representing a total of 40 countries. Teams are asked to deploy CAD (computer aided design) and CAM (computer aided manufacturing) software to collaborate, design, analyze, manufacture, test, and then race miniature balsa wood F1 cars powered by compressed air. WAB students from grade 7, 8, and 9 have created business plans, developed designs, manufactured, and will race their cars, similar to teams in professional Formula 1 auto racing.  

The previous world finals have taken place in such locations as Kuala Lumpur, London, Singapore, and Austin, Texas. Celebrity Formula 1 racers and a swath of media organizations attend the global competition each year. Students in attendance not only get the opportunity to race their cars and test their designs against their peers from around the world, but they also gain exposure to professional engineering designs.

Students have been working since January as team managers, co- team managers, graphic designers, resource managers, manufacturers, and communications representatives. Horse Power will be the team representing China at the 2014 F1 in Schools World Finals. This is the eighth year that the Western Academy of Beijing will send a team to the finals.

This free event is open to the public and will be held in WAB’s HUB gym. Click here for more information about F1 in Schools.

For more information, contact Jessia Xu 18jessicax@mshs.wab.edu

Edited by Danny Du

Photos courtesy of WAB

The Grand Prix has a new track in Beijing at the Western Academy of Beijing, and Ferarri and McLaren better watch out because WAB’s X2 Racing team are primed for pole position in the F1 in Schools’ world final. In the spirit of fun and corporate social responsibility, the X2 Racing team unveiled a very special circuit at an event for Shunyi Special School yesterday at WAB.

X2 Racing is a team of WAB students who have designed and built their own miniature Formula One car, to participate in the F1 in Schools competition. F1 in Schools is an international competition in which kids design and manufacture small, functional, model racing cars. The kids use computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) techniques to create miniature cars out of balsa wood, which they then fit with CO2 canisters and race.

This year X2 Racing will represent WAB and China at the competition’s ninth world finals in Austin, Texas, competing against over 250 students from over 40 different countries.

X2 Racing team’s members are: Tjeard van Oort, age 14 from the Netherlands, Irene Min, age 17 from Korea, Colin Zhang, age 18 from Canada, Guo Hao Sun, age 17 from China, Yun Song age 17 from Korea, and Steve Shang, age 18 from China, who graduated last year and will unfortunately be unable to travel to the world finals due to university commitments.

Judging for the competition is split across several categories. The cars are judged on their adherence the model specification rules, and the team is interviewed on their CAD/CAM know-how. The teams are also required to create a 20 page design portfolio (including team identity and project management information, car design and manufacture, and marketing techniques) and pit display. In F1 the pit refers to the team’s headquarters at the track, at finals it refers to a display booth where the team will present all of the information about their project. Each team will make a 10 minute verbal presentation to a panel of judges on their project. Finally the cars get to race on the official 20 meter F1 in Schools competition track

“The aim of the project is to introduce students to engineering in a fun way,” says Sue Edwards, a middle school learning support teacher. Edwards has been supporting the teams marketing and sponsorship initiatives, while Andy Cole, a middle school design technology teacher, has been facilitating the team’s design and manufacturing. The competition gives students a chance to apply science, math, technology and engineering to model racing, and also to gain experience in marketing, project management, and finance.

The project takes real commitment, diligence and perseverance. “The team of six students has been meeting after school and working solidly for a year on it for one afternoon a week,” Edwards explains.

One of the key aspects of the X2 Racing team has been their focus on corporate social responsibility. On the run up to the world finals, they’ve invited several Chinese national schools to come to WAB, look at the program, and most importantly, race some cars.

Students from Shunyi Special School were excited to participate yesterday. Because the balsa wood models are so expensive, when they introduce people to the concept they use plastic cars. Their audience can assemble the cars, fit the CO2 canisters, and then race.

Involving Chinese schools has allowed many more children to get excited about STEM. “In China there are so many schools with large class sizes. They have huge groups of kids doing rote learning, and this has been an exciting hands-on experience for them,” Edwards explains. “The cars are powered by CO2 canisters, you just press a button and they shoot down the long track we’ve constructed.”

Here’s hoping X2 Racing can put the pedal to the metal, burn rubber and zoom past the checkered flag! They’ve already succeeded in giving the students of Shunyi Special School a day to remember.

Photos courtesy of WAB

I got an email recently from a WAB student on a mission. Hannah Teng is tasked with the unenviable challenge of finding funding for her racing team, X2 Racing. X2 Racing hopes to enter the World Finals for F1 in Schools which will be held in Malaysia this September. If you feel like donating to a good cause, or even sponsoring Hannah’s team, read her email below for details:

We are students from Western Academy of Beijing (WAB), and we will be entering our 4th World Finals for F1 in Schools. This is an initiative that promotes the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and state of the art Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) to design, analyze, manufacture, test, and race miniature CO2 gas-powered balsa wood cars as a team. This competition will take place in September 2011 in Malaysia. This is an international competition with competitors from more than 30 nations and is an opportunity for high school students to compete at an international level on a world stage.

Our Team, X2 Racing, which consists of us six students, is representing our school WAB and China at this event, and we are working very hard to achieve a good result at the World Finals. It is a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience that we are indebted in having to opportunity to participate in. However, there are a number of costs associated with our participation, such as resources for building the car, flights, entry fees, printing, and accommodation. Thus, we are actively seeking the generous support of the community to assist us with our endeavors.

If you would like more information, you can visit the official site at www.f1inschools.comor contact me at
hannahteng@yahoo.com, or this phone number: 1501 144 2438.

Go on! Spare some change for a good, educational cause.