Sunday 9th July 2023

Today was the day we went all the way to Goodwood and competed against 71 other cars! There was even a team who came from Spain especially for this event. When we first arrived, we checked if our car was looking good and ready and then we handed in our portfolio and also got our new car number. Later, we all got called for a safety briefing and we got told which cars were doing which event first. We were told to do the drag racing first and luckily, we beat many faster cars, coming 40/71 After that, we went to do the slalom racing and whilst that was happening, the rest of us did some litter picking. We did amazingly at this event and came is a respectable 30/71. Then, we got to go for a break and eat lunch whilst watching Spitfires flying overhead!. Later on, we went to the pitstop station and we completed it in 30 seconds for changing all 4 wheel s. For this event, we came 6/71. Next, was sprints where we went really fast, coming in 38/71. We had another race which we did amazing in which was against all 71 cars on the Goodwood race track which was 2.3 miles! We over took many cars and some cars crashed or broke down. We cam e 18/71 for this race  Finally, was the 12+ race and we came 8^th place which was completely unexpected but was really cool. After was awards but sadly we didn’t win anything but we had an amazing time and would love to go again and we came 22nd overall which was a fantastic achievement.

 

Friday 30th June

GreenPower -Session 18

 

    

Friday 23rd June

GreenPower -Session 18

Today we went onto the field instead of the usual sports zone, as there was more space for turning.

We drove around on the sports day track as it gave us an advantage of knowing where to go as there were white lines although they were faded. Going uphill, it was slower as we had to drag the weight of the car upwards, but going downhill it was a lot faster as we went down with the field. It was quite bumpy, as there were plenty of holes in the ground.

Today it was mainly a practice session, but the track was 5 times bigger than usual. We all drove very steadily and did well.

  

Saturday 17th June

GreenPower -Session 17

 

This week, we went to our first race event!!!!!

  

We arrived at a St Paul's school in London and got our car number (number 11).

 

We handed in our portfolio and we did some litter picking whilst we waited for the racing to start.

First, we did a safety briefing and then waited for around 5 minutes before we did a slalom.

  

 

  

After the slalom, we did the drag race and then had a break for lunch.

  

Next, we had another race which was the sprint and we got into the semi-finals! Sadly, we got beaten but we still had a lot of fun.

  

Overall, we had a great time in London and we came away with THE BEST BOPDYWORK TROPHY!!!

We hope we will have a great time at Good Wood 😉.

 

Friday 16th June 

GreenPower -Session 16

We had a great session this week, focusing on driving as we are racing tomorrow. We stopped our session a little earlier to make sure we had everything we needed for race day.

We are so excited!!! 

Friday 8th 2023

GreenPower -Session 15

 

This session, we did a slalom (a series of turns in a snake, usually used for challenges) with two batteries in the car and stopped in a space. It was our first time driving the kart with the completed bodywork. When we drove our car, we realised we had improved our driving a lot, and we all did extremely well. We did the challenge twice, as usual, the first time we got used to the track and took it slowly and we took the second a bit faster because we knew what we were doing.

Finally, our BINS have arrived!!! We did a WHOLE assembly about them, but unfortunately, because it was Monday, Miss George wasn't able to watch this. We told her it was amazing and she was very proud.

  

  

Monday 5th June 2023

GreenPower - Assembly to the WHOLE school

This Monday, we lead a whole school class assembly to talk about our need to look after the environment. We explained our findings when we went around the school and showed our new bins to the school, in order to make our school environment cleaner.

   

Although we were really nervous we felt really empowered and thought that the school took on board our thoughts and since, the bins have been used and there is definitely less rubbish on the playground!

Friday 2nd June 2023

GreenPower - Session 14

We finally did it!!!

We have finished designing send painting the car. It is ready to race.

Next thing for us to do is great race ready. We will have to practise our sprints and slalom ready for our first competition at St Paul's London on the 17th June!

 

 

Friday 19th May 2023

GreenPower - Session 14

 

Today we made loads of progress with the painting of the car. We are using acrylic paint as it should be waterproof in case of rain on race day.

We are really proud with how our designs have come to life and we feel that the car is eye catching and also explains what are message is.

The chequered pattern is finished!

 

Adding detail to the front.

Friday 12th May 2023

GreenPower - Session 13

 

This week, we started to paint our design onto the body. We focused on the chequered black and white pattern for the bottom, with a green stripe above, illustrating our green motto ‘ It’s Great to be green’. During the week, we are going to add the words

…racing towards a brighter future… it’s great to be green…

     

Friday 5th May 2023

GreenPower - Session 12

This week, we spent some time thinking about the body work of the car. We thought about our motto, ‘It’s great to be green’ and therefore focused on using recycled material.

We started to cut the  material and fix it onto the body of the car using cable ties. This was a particularly fiddly job to do but we managed it!!!

 

First we draped the cloth over the car.

  

Then was the fiddly part... hole punching the material and using cable ties to attach it to the car.

  

Friday 28th April 2023

GreenPower - Session 11

We had an amazing week this week as we actually started to drive the car at top speed.

We linked the two batteries together to do this. 

We were all pretty nervous, as, although we were confident at steering at low speed, the thought of the car going a lot faster was daunting!!!

To help visualise the course, we walked it through and thought about how we needed to take the corners. The car has a big Turing circle, so we had to be carful about we one the court we were driving into the turn.

Before each driver started their drive, the pusher did a full safety check, making sure that the helmet was on securely, the drive had gloves and goggles and that the seatbelt was secure. The pusher asked the driver to lean forward so they could see that the seat belt was tight enough.

When the pusher was happy, they said ' Driver are you ready?'

When the driver responded, 'Yes,' they turned the master switch on the car and said 'Car on.' The driver then switched the car on by the steering wheel and the pusher got into position.

It was thrilling to drive so quickly!

 

 

 

Green Power - Session 10

 

This week, we drove our car around cones to test our steering.

To add a challenge, we had to stop in a tight space which reminded us of a parking game. The bad thing is, Harvey (me) had just started his second loop and, unfortunately, the battery we had just used stopped working so he had ‘brake down’. Not to worry though, as we did a quick battery change and we were back up and running!!

Anyway, we are still waiting four weeks now, and our bins have not yet arrived. ☹

     

We always need to make sure the car is safe. We do this by getting the pusher to run to the back of the car after the race has finished and turn the safety switch off. The pusher then says 'Car safe'.

Green Power - Session 9

This week, we drove our BRILLIANT CAR for the FIRST TIME!!!

First, we practised the braking in a straight line. We all had a turn, so we got to get used to how the car handles. When the car is started, we have to say ‘car on’, and then the driver has to say ‘switch on’. The pushers have to check the driver to see that all of the safety features are OK.

And, after around three weeks of waiting, our luxurious crew tops had arrived. It had our Green Power logo on the front of it, our slogan (It’s great to be green) on the back of the top and our sponsors on the sleeves (Love your logo and Herd van hire). 

 

  

    

    

    

Friday 24th March 2023

Green Power - Session 8

We noticed a while ago that our school’s Playground has too much rubbish lying around…so we asked FOSPA for new bins and today we finally ordered them!

We went outside today to take pictures of the rubbish on the ground to make our PowerPoint Assembly plan.

We organised the pictures to fit in the presentation and then we sent a letter to Mrs Alden to ask if and when we could present our assembly.

 

 

Friday 17th March 2023

Green Power - Session 7

Today, we talked about our sponsorship letters and how Herd Van Hire have agreed to fully sponsor us, which is amazing.

Also, FOSPA have agreed to let us get the bins. The original plan was for 6, but they could only do 3 so we decided to do one of each ( General waste, Recycling and Food waste.)  We are still waiting for Love Your Logo to respond to our letter.

We also discussed our car design.

In today’s session, we discussed how the brakes for the car work. Then we talked about how we know the tyres are pumped up and when there’s more pressure there’s less friction which means the car goes faster. We discovered that we use a tyre gauge to check the pressure in the wheel. Inside the wheels there are needle rollers which help reduce friction. There are different needle rollers for different wheels but some of the wheels don’t have needle rollers.

    

Friday 10th March 2023

Green Power - Session 6

 

We started the morning by talking about the electrics and how the car is powered. There were two batteries that were combined to make 24 volts.

This makes the kart go faster. We learnt that volts mean the measure of pressure and amps mean the measure of the electricity current. To keep us safe and away from danger, we had a fuse in the circuit.

Fuse = breaks the circuit so it stops it working.

Relay = takes all the power has a big fuse. 50 amp.

We tested the brakes of the kart and the seat. When we tested them, we got into the kart and equipped the safety objects. They were:

Racing helmet

Gloves

Safety glasses

Racing suit

And we had our long hair tied up.

The tallest driver checked the roll cage by seeing if their head was as tall as the roll bar. 

  

Friday 3rd March 2023

Green Power - Session 5

Today, we continued to build the car and and had to get the wheels off the car to finish securing the body work. This was quite a fiddly thing to do. We had to use a ratchet spanner to help us. 

  

While the car was on the side, we also secured the seat in place. It really is looking more like a car now!!

       

We took time to talk about the different jobs each wheel has. We focused on the drive wheel and notices that it rotates the axel and stops when we pushed the break. We also talked about the front wheel and how they steer the car.

After that, we had a discussion about what companies we could write to and made a few edits on the t-shirts. We had also decided to make baseball cap to include the logo we have made.

    

   

This is an example of our letter

Samuel came up with a great saying

'GreenPower racing to a brighter and greener future.'

We race clean, green and mean!!!'

 

Friday 24th February 2023

Green Power - Session 4

To begin with, we continued our work at the front of the car which was to tighten the bolts and screws with the spanner. Then we moved on to the harness/seatbelt and we began to assemble it.

    

Then we moved on to the harness/seatbelt and we began to assemble it.

  

We stopped assembly a little early this week to talk about our vision as a team. We decided that the playgrounds always have lots of litter on it and we wanted to do something about it. We have sent a proposal to The Friends of St Paul’s School to see if they can help fund new bins so food waste and general rubbish is easily separated into fun bins and to add a paper waste bin in the quiet area to reduce paper litter.

Friday 3rd February 2023

Green Power - Session 3

The first thing that we noticed as we came in, was that the seat was incorrectly assembled so we took it all apart and rebuilt it correctly. 

The other team continued with the construction of the car frame. The front panel was started as well and we learnt about what a captive nut is.

  

We listed what we had to achieve over the next 3 weeks:

• Final logo
• Final design for a t-shirt
• Final slogan [ that fits with the message]
• A paragraph about what Greenpower is this year… what is our message
• A persuasive letter to use to convince companies to sponsor us
• 

Friday 27th January 2023

Green Power- Session 2

Welcome to our newest member of the GreenPower team - Artie!

This week, we got straight into assembling the driver seat and parts of the body work. We split into groups of four so we could split our skills.

For this stage, we needed specific tools.

They were:

Seat:

A size 3 Allen key

A size 8 Ring Spanner

Body:

A size 13 Ring Spanner X2

Seat assembly

It was pretty fiddly to put the seat together, and we found out that we needed to put all the nuts washers and bolts in place and only tighten them by hand otherwise some of them did not line up.

The more we did, the quicker we got and by the end of the session, we had almost finished the whole seat!!!

    

Body assembly

This was pretty tricky but we soon got the hang of it, and it definitely helped to communicate between each other as the person holding the bolt in place had very little space to hold the ring spanner. We got there in the end and the kit is almost looking like a car now!

 

T-Shirt, Logo and Slogan discussion

At the end of the session, we shared our designs and ideas of logos and t-shirt. It was so encouraging that all the team loved the designs and there were clear favourites amongst the team. We will tell you more next week about which they are!

   

Friday 20th January 2023

Green Power- Session 1

Meet The Team

In Green Power, we have a group of 7 people who have been chosen to engineer and race a car.

In our team, we have …

-Florence

-Harvey 

-Max 

-Nicholas                                

-Erin 

-Samuel 

-Salaha

We got to know each other a little better by explaining what our likes and dislikes are and why we want to be in the GreenPower team.

What Is Green Power?

Green Power is an organisation where different schools around the world build and race a car. We get to compete against other schools, learn about engineering and get to know each other. As a team, we work together and respect others.

Health And Safety

We have learnt how to use the tools safely and how to use them properly. We have also learnt to not carry anything over anyone’s head and to be careful when holding any metal or sharp pieces.

Tools

We have learnt how to use these specific tools:

-Open ender spanner

-Ring spanner

-Rachet ring spanner

-Adjustable spanner

-Allen key

-Screw driver

-Bolt

-Nut

-Plastic inner lock nut

-Washer (spreads the load and stops the nut falling through)

  

Things We Have Learnt

We have learnt that the holes in the body create a lighter weight car and creates a car which is stronger.

The start of the assembly

We started to assemble the seat using the nuts, washers and bolts. We used an Allen key and a ring spanner and identifies which nuts and bolts we needed from the technical drawings.