RACV Energy Breakthrough

This is the first year that thePrimary School participated in the RACV Energy Breakthrough.  It is designed to get children thinking about the value of alternative energy; human power, solar power, wind power, compressed air etc.  We traveled to a town called Marryborough Victoria for a series of competitions between schools all over the state.  Melanie was competing in the Push Cart Races.  The kids designed and built a push cart that had to meet prescribed basic design specifications such as the size of the wheels, has a seat belt, has to steer etc.  There are lots of other competitions as well such as a human powered vehicle, alternatively powered boat races and more.  Mel was selected to be on the team and they practiced for their races for months. I went with her and we camped on the footy field with our school for the weekend.  We had such a great time.

Here's Mel practicing for their race. Driving is the easy part.

Pushing is the hard part, especially when your race partner is twice your weight.

No worries, Mel is tough as nails.

Well... she's still pretty tough, Chloe was trained by Sylvester Stalone himself.

Its go time.  On the way to day one of the competition.

Here's the whole team, geared up and ready to go.

This is Carmel, their teacher who organized them to join this event.

Here's mom giving them some driving tips. Oh yeah.

We weren't the only people there.

Mel and her pal Brook.

Checking out one of the HPV's. (Human Powered Vehicles)

Checking out the town.

Hanging out at camp.

The kids had to give a presentation on the design of the vehicle, they also had to take it apart and put it all back together in racing order in less than 30 minutes.

Some HPV's on the track.

Our team on the obstacle course.

Go Mel!

Mel won this and brought it home to Maeby Lyn, it was so sweet.

Me and my Mel, this was before she was taller than me.

Chow time at camp.

These are some of the boys who gave us a hard time about using disposable plates and cups.  Hope they are enjoying saving the environment while we were relaxing after dinner.