Amy Palmer walked into design technology expecting that a box would be the most exciting thing she got to design. And then she received her assignment.The child’s desk she created for her GCSE project resembled half a doughnut and was accompanied by a peppermint candy stool. By the time the Saltus Graduate Years student was through with it, she was hooked on the class and looking forward to her next build: a miniature Formula One car she created in five weeks.It’s an unusual interest for a 17-year-old girl. Amy is one of two females in the traditionally male-centred class.“I like being able to stand out within a class of all boys and be able to prove them all wrong,” she said. “I like the fact that we have structure, that we can design things and build things. “There’s such a wide range of things we can do. It’s not just building a box; it’s the finished product really. You go through testing and evaluation, but then you get this final product and it’s really cool.”The Saltus scheme follows F1 in Schools, an initiative started in Britain 15 years ago to encourage students to pursue engineering careers.Design teacher Philip Heap introduced the project to Bermuda two years ago. It came with the complete overhaul of his department, an effort made possible though a “generous donation” by Charles Marshall, a past president of the Saltus Association.Before then, the programme focused mainly on “building bird boxes”.“That was basically what students [thought] DT was,” Mr Heap said. “Just come into the workshop and get a hammer and some nails and just build something together. They hadn’t really thought about the whole design process and the aspects with laser cutting, 3-D printing, CAD/CAM routing.“As soon as we finished refurbishing here and getting the technology centre set up, we started looking at ways we could encourage engineering and bring in external resources like the F1 track. “There was no uptake to AP level in design technology, it was only the students that were really interested in architecture, engineering or designing. There were no opportunities for them, which is why we created this course to give them the opportunity to go into those fields. “In Bermuda it’s very much seen as a lesser career route. Rather than doing purely academic work, we [at Saltus] also focus on career opportunities.”The students were each given a block of lightweight balsa wood to design, carve and paint before adding wheels and original hubs.The cars’ power comes from compressed air canisters. They are able to travel speeds of up to 70 miles per hour and typically travel Saltus’s 80-foot track in about 1.3 seconds. Screens measure reaction and travel time.Amy’s car was judged second overall, narrowly losing to the custom build by underdog Malcolm “Benn” Smith.“Hers is the best designed car, so theoretically it should have won, but his is the shortest and lightest car — that’s why it went fastest down the track,” Mr Heap explained.Amy added: “Everyone in our DT class is really competitive. When we’re all making the same thing, we want to make sure our product is one of the best.”Mr Heap had hoped to take students to an international competition in Austin, Texas, this year, but a lack of funding foiled that plan. Competitions are also held in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Australia.“For world competition, the students replicate what a Formula One team would consist of, so teamwork is involved and each one has to take on a specific role: engineer, corporate designer in marketing, team leader, CAD designer,” he said. “It would [have] cost at least $20,000 to get the team to the race location, which follows the actual Formula One race. “Then we have our corporate identity; it really needs big involvement of the sponsor. The biggest prize is the accolade of becoming champions at F1 racing. It’s quite prestigious.”Amy plans to continue with DT, although it’s not part of the Advanced Placement curriculum she’s following.“It helps me with building a portfolio of work because I want to go into architecture,” she said. “And it’s good for showing my design skills — because we have a lot of really good equipment.”The teenager recently completed work experience at Cooper Gardner, a Hamilton architect firm.“It was really great. I did surveying of houses. I started building a bottom floor. “I got to extrude dimensions, square things off,” she said. “They didn’t have me just sitting around watching. “They thought that I had enough skills in SketchUp and CAD that they could put me to use.”