FOR the first time in the 15-year history of the Wilson Transformer Solar Car Challenge, the Aspect School Riverina will submit an entry.
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First held in 2003, Solar Car Challenge was originally held to encourage student awareness of the manufacturing industry.
Each team is given a helping hand by an industry mentor, and it’s fair to say the Aspect School might be the odds on favourites with their mentors – Brad Jones Racing.
While the solar cars are a little different to the V8 beasts the garage is used to tuning up, Aspects School’s Doug McGhee said it was an exciting opportunity for his senior students.
“It’s amazing, we run a life skills curriculum at Aspect, and this is really extending the science program and their work-related skills,” he said.
“Hopefully we can get some workshop access as well!”
This is the first year the Aspect School has run classes for years 11 and 12.
Mr McGhee said he was hoping there would be myriad benefits for the school’s students, particularly those soon to graduate.
“It’s been a really easy relationship to build with BJR, it’s really exciting to have them on board with us,” he said.
“This is massive for us, even just coming to the launch today and doing simple things like going up to collect the kit.
“Socially, it’s huge for them.
“It’s pushing them outside their comfort zone, we want to have high expectations for these guys, really raise the bar.
“If this leads to them getting an industry apprenticeship or something, that would be huge.”
Aspect student Noah Tobin, 13, said he was looking forward to getting started.
“It’s pretty cool actually, the build are probably going to be a lot of fun,” he said.
“I’ve always wanted to build stuff – sometimes I fix things at home with dad.”
BJR engineer and Aspect mentor Danny Sims said it was exciting to welcome a new team to the competition.
“It’s pretty cool for us, most of the guys in my department came from projects like this but on a bigger-scale, from university,” he said.
“Hopefully we can keep the ball rolling.
“It’s really nice to see some progress and to be involved.”
The 2018 Solar Challenge was officially launched on Thursday morning, with 14 schools set to take part.
Wilson Transformers general manager Jon Retford said the event provided a crucial opportunity for students to connect to industry.
“Too often we know industry and schools don’t communicate as well as they can,” he said.
“This is one way to break down some of the barriers.”