THE school grounds at Laurel Hill in Limerick City will become a virtual Monte Carlo in March this year when transition year racing team, Allora, take to the track with their specially designed miniature Formula One racing car.
The team of six Transition Year girls have qualified for the regional final of the competition, which will see mini racing cars designed by students compete against each other.
The team currently has four prototype designs for their car, team manager Aaliyah Coughlan told the Limerick Post.
“We were delighted to get through to the regional finals. We don’t know yet quite how fast these cars go, but we can tell you it’s very fast,” said Aaliyah.
“The mini racing cars have all the same spec as the full-sized cars but they are powered by a carbon cannister. This is the first time our school has entered the competition,” Aaliyah explained.
The other team members are Eva Kiely (Design Engineer); Lara Sheehan (Resources); Ameenah Hussaini (Social Media/Marketing) and Andrea Forde (Fundraising/Sponsorship).
In Laurel Hill, the teachers overseeing the competition entry are Mr Osiak and Mr Curtin.
The team name, ‘Allora’ “comes from the Italian word for laurel and a victory wreath is traditionally made from olive leaves. We wanted to tie it all in,” the Laurel Hill team manager said.
The F1 in Schools STEM Challenge is one of the world’s foremost student competitions for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Each year more than 17,000 schools in 51 nations take on the challenge of developing the world’s fastest miniature F1 car.
