St Joseph’s Energy Breakthrough

This term, the 5/6 students at St Joseph’s Primary School Red Cliffs have been working hard to prepare for a push cart competition called “Energy Breakthrough”. Our fabulous team names (created by the students) are Swift Saints and Red Cliffs Racers!

Energy Breakthrough is a push cart race where we are challenged to reuse old scraps to build a cart. Some of the items we have managed to reuse are shower poles, old-school chairs and the basic frame of the original cart from our first competition in 2017. This year’s competition will be held in Maryborough on the 20th-24th of November and we can’t wait!

We have been enthusiastically preparing for the various push cart events in the last couple of weeks. These include sprint, obstacle and long-distance racing, with each event including a driver and pusher. This preparation is crucial, as we will be questioned by the judges on the day and our fitness levels need to be maxed!

Other areas of learning include driving skills, making a presentational video, finding sponsorships, designing our t-shirts and studying the different scientific forces that move the cart. Our teams have been working together on the t-shirt designs and we have chosen cyan blue and hot pink to stand out!

From an engineering perspective, we have been looking at any adjustments that will increase the carts’ performance and safety. We have to raise quite a bit of money through sponsorships to cover the costs of the cart modifications and purchasing helmets, t-shirt printing and travel expenses. As we walked around Red Cliffs, visiting various businesses, we realised we are fortunate to live in such a generous community.

It will be an exciting yet jam-packed next two terms, getting ready to compete. In addition to our amazing sponsors, we will be organising and participating in fundraisers such as Footy Colours Day, Halloween-themed Trivia Night and an ice-bucket challenge for the teachers!

We are all looking forward to competing and making our school community proud.

Written by Ruby, Emily and Thea