Irbid girls school wins F1 motorsport award in Malaysia

AMMAN — A female team from Seilah, in Irbid Governorate, has won the first place in Women in Motorsports Award at “F1 in Schools” world finals in Malaysia.

The “Global Score” team from Seilah High School for Girls competed in Kuala Lampour  with 51 teams from 27 countries between September 24 and 27.

The students completed the competition’s 12 stages with a “high-quality” model race car, designed and created by them, the team’ supervisor, teacher Rania Bader Obeidat told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The girls also won the third place in the competition’s “Sportsmanship” category.

According to the award’s website, the competition challenges students to create their own Formula 1 team, which is commissioned to design, construct and race the fastest miniature Formula 1 Car of the Future, powered by a compressed air cylinder.

At the World Finals, each team displayed its car and a written portfolio, a verbal presentation before the judges. 

Minister of Education Omar Razzaz congratulated the team saying the students’ excellence and creativity have become a role model in the education.

Razzaz stressed that excellence and creativity is vital for any education system seeking development and achieving high status on the international level, according to the Jordanian News Agency, Petra. 

Obeidat, the ambassador of Queen Rania Al Abdullah for Excellence in Education Award, said that the students from 11 and 12 grades participated in a local competition organised by Jubilee Centre for Excellence in Education, which qualified them for the international competition.

The girls built a model race car, using 3D design programmes and printed it with a 3D printer, the teacher told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

The students passed the local competition late in May and worked on a daily basis during the summer to prepare for the international contest, Obeidat added. 

The award required research and the study of engineering, physics and mathematics that helped students apply in practice what they learned in theory, the teacher noted. 

The team consisted of Rama Jaradat, Dana Ababneh, Nada Ababneh and Lana Ababneh.

Jaradat, a Tawjehi student and the team leader, said that achieving her dream while being at Tawjehi was a challenge but reaching her dream was just as important as the certificate.

“Now, after this experience, I have learned not to give up on my dreams and to conquer them no matter the circumstances,” Jaradat told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

The student said that the “weak infrastructure of the school and traveling long distances for buying project essentials” were among the many challenges the team faced. 

Jaradat said that the competition has inspired her to become an electronic engineer and participate in bigger F1 competitions.

The Seilah School is the only high school in the area, where students from grades five to 12 attend from three different villages, she highlighted.