Designed for Speed
Designing a Formula One car, improving comfort and safety in road vehicles, pioneering space tourism or aiming for the World Land Speed Record? Engineering and design are at the heart of these endeavours, involving the application of science and mathematics. These resources can be used to motivate students, encourage creativity and group work and provide examples of excellence in engineering.
F1 in Schools
These are the first sessions from the F1 in Schools Curriculum Resource. They cover Streamlining, Calculating Speed and Specifications.
The resources can be used independently of the F1 in Schools challenge, but to make full use of them, it is recommended that your school also participates in the challenge.
The overall aim of the project is to bring the excitement and motivation of Formula One™ racing to school whilst also delivering the curriculum in a real and meaningful way.
F1 in Schools Challenge
This website provides all the information needed to run the F1 Challenge in your school.
Simple Gears and Transmission
This engineering resource was produced by MEI for the Royal Academy of Engineering, and asks the question: how are transmissions designed so that they provide the force, speed and direction required?
Students consider the physical characteristics of two gears, use circle formulae to calculate the number of teeth a gear has and consider the number of rotations performed by differing sized gears.
Further activities consider connecting three gears, torque transmission, transmission efficiency and gear boxes.
Pit Stop
From Cre8ate maths, these activities are designed to motivate students to investigate the performance of model solar cars through a series of racing challenges. To do this activity you will need a set of model solar racing cars.
Rolls Royce resources for schools
Lesson plans, worksheets and interactive activities based on engine design.
Suspension Innovation for a Safer Journey
A case study from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which looks at an innovative suspension system component that is boosting the performance of Formula One cars and improves comfort and safety in road cars, motorbikes and trains.
Distance/Time Graphs
This Teachers TV film explains how distance/time graphs can be used, in this case to measure sporting fitness.
Graphics demonstrate how the speed at different stages of a journey can be calculated. Data, collected from a person exercising at a gym, is plotted on graphs for comparison. The average speed is then calculated and an analysis of individual performances is done.
Speed Cams
The police use photographic evidence from speed cameras to prosecute speeding motorists, and evaluates the reliability of the evidence. This activity looks looks at the reliability of this evidence.
Would You Be a CLEVER Driver?
This is a Catalyst article about designing cars for the future - compact, energy efficient, safe and comfortable.
