Energy Breakthrough
Every Tuesday after school, the Woodwork room is a hive of activity as members of KCEB work together constructing human-powered vehicles that they will ride continually for 24 hours in the Energy Breakthrough event. The vehicles are three-wheeled tricycles, but not the sort of tricycle you may be thinking of. These are racing tricycles where the rider lies on their back, only 50mm from the ground, and uses the latest cycling technology to keep the vehicle moving at high speeds, complete with horns, lights, roll cage, and racing harness. They are covered in an aerodynamic fairing that allows them to cut through the air at speeds of up to 60 km/hr. Today our vehicles are on show in one of the main corridors in the school and are a testament to the many hours of work from the students to complete them to such a detailed finish.
The Energy Breakthrough is the premier science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics event for schools. The event requires students to construct a human-powered vehicle, undergo an inspection process called scrutineering and give a presentation to a panel of independent judges. The final stage of the event is a 24-hour ‘trial’ where teams of 8 riders compete to see how far their vehicles can travel in a 24-hour period. Our teams ride approximately 650 km during the event and routinely surpass our expectations.
Killester College has competed in the Energy Breakthrough for approximately 15 years and it has been run as an elective subject for Students in Years 9 and 10. Due to changes in the curriculum, the subjects were not run in 2022. Such was the passion and enthusiasm for the event from the students, that the Killester College Energy Breakthrough (KCEB) was created as an extracurricular club. We now have a passionate and enthusiastic group of students from Year 8 through to Year 12 that work productively all year to construct, maintain and train for the event which occurs in November each year.
The KCEB leadership team comprises four students from Years 12, 10 and 9 that drive the project by setting up meetings, building sessions, training sessions, and liaising with school leadership. The requirements of the event link all areas of the curriculum allowing students to apply their skills and knowledge in an authentic situation. It builds student confidence and interpersonal skills and is a much-loved event amongst our highly competitive students!
The school has entered three teams in the 2023 EB event and has taken inspiration from their childhood by naming the team Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. The vehicles were finished with a high level of professionalism and the many hours required to construct them was clearly evident in the final aesthetic touches and they have received a lot of positive feedback.
2023 is also the first year that we will see teachers compete in a human-powered vehicle event. On July 15th, the school has entered three teams into the Victorian HPV Grand Prix Series race at Sandown Raceway, one of which will be a teachers' team. We hope that the teachers' team can complete the seven hour event and not embarrass themselves too much in front of our students. If you are in the Sandown area on July 15th, feel free to drop by and see the race firsthand.
Do you want to get involved or become a sponsor? Killester College is proud to give students the opportunity to compete in the event and we hope alumni have positive memories of participating. If any alumni would like to get further involved, please contact the school and let us know. We are always looking for support both financially and with expertise in the STEAM fields.
On behalf of KCEB,
Peter Cherrington, Megan Larritt and James Blanchfield
