Formula 1 in Schools

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister provide details about SA students' achievements in an international competition?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:18): Yes, absolutely: Formula 1. Last week, three Brighton Secondary School students and their teacher were in Austin, Texas, to compete in the Formula 1 in Schools World Finals. What is important about this is of course that it is terrific fun for the kids, but what it is really about is making sure that students are able to combine a good knowledge of STEM subjects alongside the skills of how to use those combined to solve problems, and the problem in this case is how to make a vehicle go very, very fast.

This Formula 1 in Schools program has been a strength at the Brighton Secondary School. In 2012, the school's team, which was known as Cold Fusion, won the world championship in Abu Dhabi. The competition challenges students to design, manufacture, market and race their own model F1 cars and to do that they use computer software, so what you are bringing in is not only the STEM skills and the technical skills to build something but also the entrepreneurial skills that we know we need to develop in students in terms of marketing.

This is helping students to develop their STEM skills and the competition has the strong support of the Australian defence industry, which is understandably wanting students who are capable of combining all of those different skills as well as knowledge. We know that South Australia has world-class shipbuilders, obviously, and engineers. Our students, who are now able to compete with the best in the world, are continuing this proud tradition and give us great hope for the future.

This year, the Brighton students joined forces with a group of Victorian students and formed the team called Infinitude (which I do have to point out to you isn't a word), which competed in Austin. I am delighted to report that Infinitude came second out of 39 teams from all over the world. They set a new world record for the 20-metre sprint and claimed the fastest car award, and that was presented to the students by the Mercedes Formula 1 team. The world record bumped their overall score and qualified them for a garage tour of Mercedes at the recent F1 race at the Circuit of The Americas.

Obviously, what we are seeing here, for example, in team members Jesse Stevens, Nicole Kascak and Luke Battjes, are students who are grasping the future by combining their deep knowledge of STEM with a sense of fun and entrepreneurial spirit and competing across the world. What better example could we have of what we want to see for the future of our students and the future of our state?