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Little Designers, Big Ideas and Dream Cars
There are no worries about whether it will fit in the garage. No questions about practicality. No sensible colour choices.
Just big imaginations and plenty of “What if…?”
That was exactly the vibe when we packed up and headed out to Carinda Public School for a day of learning, brainstorming and drawing as part of the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.
We kicked things off with a question for the students:
How long do you think the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest has been running?
Olly confidently guessed 20 years.
Someone read the school notes! Parents everywhere can celebrate.
First, a little car talk
Before pencils hit paper, we spent some time talking about the cars we drive today and how they actually work.
The students learnt about the difference between internal combustion engines, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and it didn’t take long before the questions started coming.
And kept coming.
Exactly what we wanted.
Because the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest isn’t really about drawing the most realistic car. It’s about getting kids thinking about what cars could do in the future.
So, we started brainstorming. We worked through five questions to get those imaginations moving. Suddenly, we weren’t just talking about cars anymore.
We were talking about problems kids would like to solve, places they’d love to explore and ideas that definitely don’t appear on any current Toyota spec sheet.
Then came the fun part
With ideas starting to take shape, it was time to head up to the classroom and turn them into artwork.
This is where the magic of the Dream Car Art Contest really comes to life.
There are no wrong answers. A dream car can be colourful, clever, completely impractical or something none of us adults would ever have thought of.
And honestly, that’s the point.
The students had the chance to take what they’d learnt, mix it with a very healthy dose of imagination and start creating their own vision of what mobility could look like in the future.
Nothing more Aussie
After a morning of cars, questions, brainstorming and drawing, lunch was calling.
Mark took charge of the BBQ, cooking up sausage sangas with meat supplied by our mates at Bogewong Butcher Co.
It wasn’t long before a game of schoolyard cricket broke out too. A few quick runs between the wickets, plenty of appeals and the sort of lunchtime fun that probably hasn’t changed much in generations.
Nothing fancy. Just sausage sangas, a juice poppa and a game of schoolyard cricket. A pretty great way to spend a lunchtime at Carinda.
For us, days like this are a reminder of why the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest is such a great program.
Yes, it’s an art competition.
But it’s also an opportunity for kids to ask questions, learn something new, think about the world around them and imagine how they might make it better. And one thing's for sure: after seeing the ideas these kids came up with, the future of mobility is looking pretty bright.
