As Christmas approaches many a man will go bleary-eyed reminiscing of that childhood memory of waking in hope of finding a Scalextric set under the Christmas tree; only to find they’d been brought My Little Pony.
Now PTC are jumping on the retro toy bandwagon and joining up with Hornby to launch the Scalextric4schools Slot Car Design Challenge.
Using Pro/Engineer Wildfire software secondary school children to design their own Scalextric car then manufacture their car, fit it with a standard Scalextric motor and drive train and then race it on a standard Scalextric track. During this process the aim is to teach the students how the car works mechanically and dynamically and strive to design a car to go round a Scalextric track as quickly as possible.
“PTC is committed to delivering a truly unique and rewarding academic learning experience,” says PTC education programme manager Mike Brown. “Our strong relationship with Hornby Hobbies, together with their world-class Scalextric range of products provides the perfect foundation on which to continue development and expansion of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum modules.”
Via the ‘CAD in Schools’ initiative every school in the UK can obtain a 300 seat site license of Pro/Engineer software at no cost to the school; the license also includes free home use for students.
