School Visits    &    Mall Expo

A small group of FHR team members visited two schools over the past month to inform students about engineering, what it is, and how we go about designing such a large project like our FSAE car. In addition, during the last weekend in January the CAMP teams from SD Mines attended the Mall Expo. We first spoke to middle school students, followed by a visit to a local elementary school. The visits were a blast - there were many questions and faculty enjoyed our informative discussion.

Our first visit was to Rapid City Lincoln Academy, where we spoke to roughly 150 students about different types of engineering and the design process that our team follows. Callen covered the different types of engineering, ranging from Mechanical Engineering to Computer Engineering. Sean then went into detail regarding the design process - outlining each step our team takes to fully and accurately design a new part for the Formula car. He then describes how this process can be applied to almost any project that someone can do.

Following our first school visit, we then went to Meadowbrook Elementary School to speak with 3rd-5th graders about engineering. Again, we started by describing what each type of engineering does - making sure to put it into words that a child could understand. Legos were most definitely brought up, along with video games - both universal for children of any age. From there, we had the challenge of describing the engineering design process without confusing anyone. The best way was to compare it to the process of completing a science experiment, which clicked with a majority of our very young audience.

Most recently, Formula Hardrocker Racing joined the rest of the SDSMT CAMP Teams at the annual Mall Expo, located at the Rapid City Rushmore Mall. Our team spoke to a wide range of local visitors. We made sure to throw in a sponsorship plug (talking about our sponsors whenever possible) and referring visitors to our sponsorship boards (located behind our car). The main priority was to talk about Ethanol and our local contributors. In addition, we explained what CAMP was and how such a program helps the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology to stand out!

Overall, the last 2 months of activities have been very successful. From spreading the word about engineering to helping our community understand the importance of team building activities like Formula SAE - we look forward to taking part in more events soon!