Having Lewis Hamilton teach you about safety and crumple zones would be a dream come true for most teenagers.
Lucky Balfron High School pupils have Lewis teaching them physics everyday.
The teacher devised the 'Pimp my Trolley - Safety and Style' project which challenges S3 students to design, test and evaluate bumpers or crumple zones to make a physics trolley safer during a collision.
This was designed to model the protection offered to the passengers in a car during an accident. Pupils investigated how rapid loss in speed is more damaging to passengers in a vehicle and the project was aimed at helping them explore how this can be minimised.
Pupils use motion detectors to transmit data to a computer to allow them to refine their designs. They are also encouraged to consider how practical, aesthetic and easy to manufacture their designs would be.
Teacher Lewis Hamilton said the task really helps bring learning to life for the pupils involved, allowing them to use the knowledge they have built up to problem solve a real life situation.
He said: "Giving the pupils an engineering scenario to solve as a team produced excellent results. Using their new knowledge of the physics involved in a passenger vehicle collision quickly became almost second nature, showing how quickly they could apply the concepts. It led to some interesting and informed discussions on car safety."
The task helped young people get behind the job description of an engineer and understand what goes into the cars on our roads. One pupil said: "Testing the deceleration of the car and trying to think of ways to reduce it made me feel like a real engineer."
The Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC), who devised the activity on which this lesson was based, can supply technical guides and work cards to assist teachers who would like more details. Please contact physics@sserc.org.uk
Watch a film of Curriculum for Excellence in action at Balfron High School.