Year 9/10

Year 10 Melbourne University Amazing Spaghetti Machine Competition 2019

What is the Amazing Spaghetti Machine?

Year 10 students from across Victoria with an interest in Mathematics, Science, engineering and project management are invited to represent their schools in the annual Amazing Spaghetti Machine Contest. Teams will compete to build the most amazing ‘Spaghetti Machine’.

What is the task of the 2019 ‘Amazing spaghetti Machine’ contest?

Our task for the competition was to raise a flag with a minimum of 12 different energy transfers. During the commencing build of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics elective) project, we were grouped into teams of 5 people with various ideas to combine. We first researched ideas (Rube Goldberg machines) as well as potential themes that could present the project uniquely.

As time passed, we created different machines such as the step climber, hypnodisc & the gravity well. We also recorded our progress through a timeline & took pictures of each individual projects that would later be reassembled together.

On the 8th August 2019 (the day of the competition), we arrived with enthusiasm, & excitement. We began to assemble and prepare the ‘Black Pearl’ for the competition. We had to test the machine multiple times to make sure it worked without interventions. We encountered a small problem with the flag-raising as the internal gears did not work to bring the flag down to its original position. However, we were quick to manage the issue through many trials of testing wiring & electrical connections. We as a team engaged with the audience throughout the day by presenting our project to the best of our abilities. We discussed the different functions of machines as well as apprising our timeline of the project to what it is now.

In the end, with the anticipation of the announcement of the winner, we were awarded the award for ‘Technical Excellence’ & ‘Spaghetti with Everything’ award of the competition. We are proud & humble of our achievements as a group. Despite the award, we were left with something more; learning new skills of communication with fellow peers & learning the importance of presentation. It was a fantastic opportunity to engage & apply our skills to build a tremendous machine which we will forever remember.