About STEM Racing
"Developed to introduce students to STEM subjects in the most engaging way possible – through the creation of a miniature F1 car – STEM RACING (Formerly F1 in Schools) is an educational project like no other. Designed for teachers, informed by engineers, and endorsed by F1, this programme sets students on the fast track to STEM success; and provides a lot of fun on the way there. "
- STEM Racing Official Website
Overview
STEM Racing is a STEM competition backed by Formula 1.
One of the biggest objectives of the competition is to make the fastest car that goes in a 20 m straight line track. However, the objective of the competition is to make the best student team - not the fastest car - but the best team.
While awards are awarded to the fastest car, most of the scoring goes on through the three portfolios and verbal presentation, along with the pit display, where competitors are scored in three categories: Engineering, Project Management, and Enterprise.
F1 in Schools (now STEM Racing) World Finals 2024 Highlights
The Car
The car body used in the competition is a small 85 x 152 x 65 mm plane, slightly larger than a smartphone. These cars must comply with the regulations which change year by year, specifying the sizes, shapes, weights, and constraints of the car. The goal is to make a car that is fast in a straight line, using knowledge from the fields of aerodynamics and physics.
The Scorecard Overview
Engineering
All teams use CAD to design, simulations to get rough numbers, and testing to get actual numbers. We are scored not only how fast the car ends up going, but it's all about the process. How did we get this final design? How well did we manufacture the final car? What is unique about the car?
These questions must be answered in the Engineering portfolio, which will be examined and scored.
Enterprise
This is what makes STEM Racing so unique: they score us on how we secured sponsors, how we used social media, whether we cared about sustainability, and how we raised awareness of our own team and the competition itself.
The scorecard for this section is quite open, teams in the past have gone to daring territory such as sending their car to space, setting up ads in movie theaters, and so on.
Project Management
Project Management is scored by a portfolio half the length of the other two, yet is an essential part of the competition. It tests the project manager's ability to initiate, schedule, execute, find risks, and manage the team in general.
Having good project management is not only essential to the scorecard, but is also essential in actually having the team run.
Presentation and Portfolios
These three elements are put into A3 portfolios, each getting one whole portfolio, which will each be scored individually, and a score of visuals will also be added. Moreover, verbal presentations will also be scored based on content, as well as the overall looks of the slides.
Tournament size
The competition is open to students between the ages of 9 and 18, and the 2023 world championship attracted 68 teams from 33 countries, with some national teams competing after winning national competitions of more than 100 teams.
It is sponsored by large companies such as the FIA, Denford, and Aramco, and is held annually in the same country and at the same time as the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Credit: F1 in Schools
What is STEM education?
STEM education is a meathod of teaching that combines the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathmatics, and allows students to not only learn about these subjects in a fun and appealing way, but also teaches students to think outside of the box and take action by themselves.
Although F1 in Schools is a STEM education program that focuses on building fast cars, teams are also evaluated on non-STEM issues such as how they raise funds, their environmental activities, how they raise awareness of their team, and project management.
Through the competition, teams will learn how to raise sponsors, how to market on social networking sites, the importance of networking when creating a new team, entrepreneurship, the importance of never giving up on your dreams, how to manage money, and through public relations and sponsor acquisition activities, they will hear from entrepreneurs and CEOs that they normally would not be able to talk to.
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