Energy Breakthrough

About the Energy Breakthrough

The Energy Breakthrough is a concept created by the Country Education Partnership (CEP) in 1991 and is a joint initiative of CEP and the Central Goldfields Shire Council (CGSC).

The Energy Breakthrough provides 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’.

Teams of students are assessed in three areas: 1/ Display & Presentation, 2/ Design & Construction and 3/ Trials.

Students bring these machines to Maryborough in Victoria each November for challenges that are as short as a few minutes through to 24 hours.

Energy Breakthrough explained

Categories

The activities on offer range from ‘beginner’ to ‘advanced’ and Grade 3 to Year 12:

Size

  • Over 3,500 students from over 100 schools participate each year.
  • Students range from age nine to nineteen.Schools get involved from
  • across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.

Aims

The Energy Breakthrough Program aims to:

  • Provide an excellent STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) challenge for teams of school students aged between Year 4 to Year 12.

  • Encourage young people to explore solutions to environmental and transport issues.

  • Create meaningful connections between schools and communities across Victoria to work and learn together, with a particular focus on rural and regional schools.

  • 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.

Learning Outcomes

The Energy Breakthrough Program encourages and supports learning that:

  • Is fun and engaging.

  • Is student-focused.

  • Involves hands-on activities

  • Requires active problem-solving – on ‘real life’ issues (authentic).

  • Is collaborative – builds teamwork skills.

  • Creates links with the community.

  • Requires students to act on their learning.

  • Involves celebration.

  • Values and requires different skills, and knowledge (inter-disciplinary).

Documents

Learn more about Energy Breakthrough

Keep up to date with Energy Breakthrough

Visit the Energy Breakthrough website