EXCEL Academic Program 

Frankston Tech School Excursion

On Thursday, 20th November, 70 students from the Patterson River Secondary College EXCEL Academic program attended the new Frankston Tech School and completed a one-day workshop that was focused on designing, building and testing sustainable boat designs. The workshop offered by the Tech School was titled H2Go! and provided the students with many opportunities to learn and utilise their skills in creative and critical thinking to help solve a STEM related problem.

The teachers from the Tech School and Patterson River Secondary College supported the delivery of the workshop by providing a range of activities for the students to undertake throughout the day, including:

• Explicit instruction in the chemistry, design and operation of hydrogen fuel cells.
• Setting the context for creating sustainable boat designs to help minimise global emissions related to shipping and the transportation of goods.
• Explicit instruction in the forces associated with boat design, such as buoyancy, gravitational forces, drag and stability.
• Challenging students to design, build and test a working boat that could float in water and be propelled by the hydrogen fuel cell.
• Playing an e-sports game on new desktop computers to help support and optimise the boat design process.
• Using various materials and vacuum forming equipment to create the boat designs.
• Racing the completed boats in large water tanks and recording the fastest travel times, longest distance travelled and maximum weight of cargo that could be carried by the boat designs.
• Modifying and changing the boat designs to improve their performance.

The feedback from the students was that they enjoyed the new H2Go! workshop and learnt many new skills and knowledge. They were able to experience different ways of learning and utilised the new equipment at the Tech School to help create their boat designs. Prizes were awarded to several student teams who achieved the best performance of their boats and demonstrated the greatest improvement in performance throughout the day.

This is the first time that students from Patterson River Secondary College have attended a workshop at the Frankston Tech School and the plan in 2026 is to continuing arranging excursions and further opportunities for students from the college to attend new STEM classes at the Tech School.

For further information about the workshop and facilities available at the Frankston Tech School, please contact David Matthews, Matthew Stannard, Daniel Kelly and Catherine Blackburne.