Solar Car Champions!
by Ms Emily Collins and Ms Kylie Pearson, Library Staff
Box Hill High School
A mixture of creative, conscientious and clever collaboration has led to two of BHHS's Year 7 students, Gordon and Eli, to beat 28 other teams and come away with second place in the National Model Solar Car Challenge in Sydney. The two Year 7 students, who only signed up to learn Solar Car at the beginning of 2024, also took the coveted first place in the Victorian Model Solar Car Challenge earlier this term.
"It has been such a great experience, learning how to build a solar car and then racing it in competitions. Seeing the car develop and evolve and get faster and faster is just so great and then seeing it win was just amazing," Eli said.
But they weren't feeling confident the whole weekend. When they arrived in Sydney to represent the State at the Australian-International Model Solar Car Challenge, the weather wasn't too kind and they were a little concerned.
"On the first day, it was extremely stormy which meant it only provided the solar cars 2% sunlight. However, on the second day, the weather was much better and this was when we won both trophies. The first trophy was for being the second fastest racer and the second was for being the second best overall competitor. This award was a combination of our scores for engineering knowledge, the video we produced and our racing."
The two students who worked every Thursday after school and attended workshops during the school holidays and every second weekend to design and build the car, agree that they have learnt a lot being part of the after-school Solar Car program at BHHS. A huge congratulations to both students.
The Solar Car program is run by teacher Mr Steve Perry. Please contact the school if you would like to know more about the program.