Fast thinkin’ girls go the distance

The all-female team, “NitroGEN4 Fast Thinkin’ Girls”, have been invited to compete at a national level for the F1 in Schools STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Challenge in Melbourne next month.

To prepare for the National Titles, the team are setting up their display for an interactive session at Dudley Denny City Library this Saturday (February 22), from 11am to 1pm.

At the session, members of the public can view their pit display and learn more about their high-performance machine.

Mayor Greg Williamson encouraged residents to support STEM projects and teams.

“The young minds in our region are extremely dedicated to their studies and they embrace challenges like these and the learning opportunities they offer,” he said.

“Council have supported STEM challenges in the past, such as the BHP Whitsunday STEM Challenge last year.”

The students, Nekesha Chohan (team manager), Sage Curran (graphic designer), Amy Tappert (design/scientific engineer and manufacturer) and Indee Price (marketing manager), established NitroGEN4 in their Mackay Christian College’s Design Technologies class.

After designing, making and racing the miniature F1 car, they prepared for their first competition.

The team placed third in the regional competition which landed them a spot at the Queensland State Titles in Brisbane, where they placed second. They also took home Best Manufactured Car, Grand Prix Race and Fastest Lap Time, which offered them a place at the National Titles.

The F1 in Schools STEM Challenge is the largest STEM project worldwide and aims to mimic the world of a Formula One team.

Students are provided with real-world technology and are encouraged to follow a pathway of engineering and manufacturing disciplines of design, analyse, test, make and race.

Each year more than 20 million students in 17,000 schools across 44 countries take on the challenge.