The Energy Breakthrough is a joint initiative of the Country Education Partnership (CEP) and the Central Goldfields Shire Council (CGSC).Since 1991, the Energy Breakthrough has provided opportunities for students, teachers, parents and local industry to work together to design and construct a vehicle, a machine or innovation in technology that will represent an ‘energy breakthrough’.
The program is unique in that all teams must compete across three areas of assessment: Design and Construction, Display and Presentation and Trials. The Energy Breakthrough isn’t just a once-a-year event. School groups work throughout the year to design, build and test machines within detailed specifications.
The program encourages participants to examine and use the latest technology while considering its impact on the environment and the way people live locally and globally. It requires a team effort and an across-the-curriculum approach.
These groups then bring their vehicles and machines to Maryborough in Victoria for a huge celebration in which they can demonstrate and trial them in action.
The Program aims to …
Provide an excellent technology project for students from Prep to VCE level
- Encourage young people to explore solutions to environmental and transport issues
- Provide an opportunity for schools and communities to work and learn together
- Provide an opportunity for women and girls to participate in what has traditionally been a ‘male’ dominated area of the curriculum
- Be a fun program with real world challenges
- Offer students opportunities to explore and address vehicle design, driving skills and vehicle and passenger safety issues