The Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge is STEM competition undertaken by hundreds of students across Victoria, from Year 1 to 12.
Students design and construct their own vehicle, be it a car or boat, powered only by the sun!
They learn real skills in design, engineering, mathematics, physics, troubleshooting, sustainability and teamwork.
When you run this at your school you can cover a full array of STEM content:
Numeracy,
Design,
Applied Mathematics,
Measurement and Geometry,
Numbers and Algebra,
Electric circuits,
Forces and motion,
Energy and motion,
Design and much more.
You have control over how deeply you wish to go into each of the above and how much you wish to refine the vehicles. That means it can support any STEM program you have.
If you do choose to focus deeply on the project, the vehicles can offer amazing performance. Take a look at the high speed race in the video below.
The best designs will go on to compete in the Australian International Model Solar Challenge (AIMSC), against the greatest from across Australia and Taiwan.
This challeneg also does not need a great deal of support from teaching staff. We have found schools can often leverage the community to find motivated volunteers. Take a look at our YouTube playlist on advice for schools here to get more insights into how you can easily run this program at your school.
You can also be confident that this program will help motivate students into becoming more involved in STEM. Past competitors have found a passion in design and engineering and have gone on to study in these fields at Deakin, RMIT, Monash and Swinburne Universities.