Science, Maths and STEM

2019 Energy Breakthrough Camp

Killester College competed in the 2019 Energy Breakthrough event from November 21st to 24th.  During the year, two teams of Year 9 and Year 10 students worked hard to maintain and build a human powered vehicle, improve their fitness and develop the skills required to ride the vehicle safely and efficiently.  The vehicles are recumbent tricycles with an aerodynamic fairing.  The students then competed in a  24 hr trial to see how far they could push themselves and their tricycles.  

Our girls did extremely well as a team unit.  Only three students had participated as riders in the event before and for most it was a steep learning curve to adapt to all the challenges presented during the camp and the 24 hour trial including 39 degree heat and strong winds while setting up camp. The girls had to quickly adapt to cope with 97 other teams on the track at the same time, deal with lack of sleep and force themselves to eat at odd hours of the night when they really did not feel up to food (let alone getting back into the racing trike to work hard).

There were 13 teams in the All Female, Secondary HPV Category and our results are below and there is a link to the official Live results if you would like to have a look.

https://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/races/energy-breakthrough-2019/events/1/

Team 30 Called "Not Fast Just Furious" finished 72nd overall and a close 9th in the All Female category, doing 393 laps in 24 hours. 

This trike was involved in a rear end collision around 2:00am that put the team off the track for 15-30 minutes and damaged the seat adjustment, affected proper gear function and needed some repairs to resume racing.  This team was ahead of it's nearest rival all female teams up until the crash but worked hard to be only 1 lap off 7th and 8th placed teams and could have quite possibly pipped these two teams if the crash had not been in the mix.

Team 29 called, "Not Furious, Just Fast finished 84th overall and 10th in the All Female category doing 355 laps in 24 hours  and also worked extremely hard despite having a rider pull out due to illness.

The resilience and adaptability shown by the girls was very rewarding to watch and we had one of our best ever team performances at the event, on a number of levels. Most girls made dramatic improvements during the event , making faster pit changeovers and overcoming soreness from bumps and bruises.   A number of girls showed great  determination by riding long shifts in the trikes. Many team members were able to maintain a consistent pace for 1-2 hour efforts before changing riders.

Many thanks to all teachers and staff that assist in making this event possible.

James Blanchfield and Peter Cherrington

Energy Breakthrough Teachers

Girls in Science Forum

On Tuesday the 12th of November, five students in Year 9 were given the chance to participate in the L’Oreal Girls in Science Forum. The day began early in the morning at Melbourne Central where we gathered as a group, from there we travelled to Melbourne University via public transport. Once we arrived at the University, we started our day with a conference, in which we were very lucky to be able to listen to five of the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Australian and New Zealand Fellows. They spoke to us about their research and answered our Q&A questions. 

After this, we headed to our activity groups and ate lunch together. Our group leader took us over to the far side of the University where we all sat. Before our first activity commenced, our group leader took us on a tour around the University. We learnt about the different buildings and it purpose or meaning. The first activity that we did was Drone Flying. We entered a room specifically designed for drone flying, although we didn’t get to watch the drones in action, we were still able to watch the University students play around with the drones and witness firsthand the struggles and work that goes into flying and programming drones. Our next and final activity was a tour of the Museum of Anatomy and Pathology. We learnt about how the students and doctors at the University preserved and worked with body parts. My personal experience at the Museum was truly an eye opener and highly educational as it taught me more about different diseases and infections that could occur within the human body.

Overall our day at Melbourne University was an amazing experience. It taught us a lot about the process of our futures and more about Science than we could ever imagine. I’d like to give a big thank you to Ms Lim for allowing us to go on this mini excursion and thank you to the Science Department at Melbourne University for this wonderful opportunity! 

Tycia Sinn, Year 9 St Emily