This article is from page 25 of the 2010-02-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 25 JPG
HARD work and dedication are pushing one group of science enthu- siasts towards a place on the podium at the annual Fl in School’s competi- tion.
Team Firedragons are one of two entrants from St Flannan’s College, Ennis, who will take part in the re- gional finals of the competition in Cork on March 2.
This is the fifth year for the com- petition to run in Ireland under the guidance of the Irish Computer So- ciety (ICS) in partnership with Dis- cover Science & Engineering.
The Fl in Schools challenge is an international competition, which now attracts more than 90,000 stu- dents from across the world.
The competition 1s open to sec- ondary schools to design and manu- facture model racing cars. Student teams will compete against each other in a national championship to determine the best-engineered and fastest car in Ireland.
Team members Tim Janssan, Nor- bert Rosik, Eric Mullaly, Christo- pher Ogbonna and Jack O’Dea are hoping the months of hard work and preparation they have devoted to the project will pay off in Cork.
Team Manager, Norbert Rosik de- scribed the work the students have done to get to this stage in the com- petition. “The team has been very consistent and very committed to the project even with the increasing amount of school work due to three of the team members preparing for the Junior Certificate. The qualitfy- ing stage consisted of submitting a five-page plan on how the Firedrag- ons intended to create their project of a 25cm balsa wood Formula One car by showing their research, proposed
budgets, designs etc. In this compe- tition our team will be using com- pressed air canisters to power their model car to achieve scale speeds in excess of 350kmph.”
Artistic Manager, Christopher Og- bonna said the team decided to de- sign a logo in order to set their de- sign apart from competitors. “The Firedragons came up with this logo because it defines us from other
teams as we have a fiery passion for what we do. Apart from this our logo is very unique as it 1s extremely in- tricate.”
Norbert believes the team deserves to get through to the national finals and win because of the amount of ef- fort put in and the results so far ob- tained. He also thanked the group’s science teacher, Michael Horgan, who has encouraged both teams
from St Flannan’s throughout the de- sign process.
The Fl in Schools National Finals will be take place in April. Visit www. linschools.ie for details.