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Rocket-fuelled learning: Berkhamsted Pupils record speeds of 46mph with foam cars
A group of Berkhamsted School pupils have competed in Bloodhound SSC’s Model RocketCar Challenge ‘Race For The Line’
Meredith McMillan-Ward, Grace Botha, Sophie Lever, Hannah Robertson and Lucas Williams, all Year 7 pupils, had spent weeks designing and building their cars to optimise their racing potential. Presented with a rectangular block of foam, the speed seekers transformed the raw materials into racing cars during their weekly Key Stage Three STEM Club meeting.
The named ‘Rocket Dolphin’ reached an impressive top speed of 46mph and ‘Speedy’ reached 37mph.
The results were recorded with a BBC Microbit, a pocket-sized codeable computer the pupils had placed on board their cars. They analysed the data to see how changes to the car and the environment affected speed.
The national competition is inspired by the rules governing the 1,000mph BLOODHOUND Supersonic Car. Participants learned about teamwork and time keeping as well as the Physics of Newton’s third law of motion, engineering, chassis design, how rockets work and crucially, how to calculate the speed attained.
STEM Club is one of 74 Clubs and Societies offered to Berkhamsted School pupils. Boys and girls in Year 7 to 9 enjoy practical experiences related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and continue their interests in KS4 and KS5 STEM clubs.
Racing for the finish line, a timing gate of BBC MicroBits pic.twitter.com/5WWZPWBxdq
— Berko Physics (@BerkoPhysics) March 16, 2017
