2018 Synergy Schools Solar Challenge Grand Final

It’s a big day for a bunch of kids in Perth and Bunbury today – the grand final of the Synergy Schools Solar Challenge, being held at Optus Stadium.

Developed in partnership with the Science Teachers Association of WA (STAWA), the Solar Challenge is a hands-on learning initiative where years 6 and 8 school students in the Perth and Bunbury areas build model solar powered cars and then race them against other schools.

While the solar car kits the kids receive are standardised, they can fiddle with solar panel angles and other aspects in order to get the best results from their cars. The kits are supplied at no cost to the schools, along with support material.

More than 1,000 students from the region participated this year. Here’s some video from the inaugural Challenge held last year.

While it looks to be a bunch of fun for all involved (including the teachers), there is another important side.

“The Synergy Schools Solar Challenge teaches students basic engineering principles in a fun and interactive way and is a great initiative to help peak their interest in STEM subjects,” said Synergy chief executive officer Jason Waters last month.

The acronym STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics – areas needing some work in the Australian educational system.

“The key to addressing what is going to be a global employment problem is having sufficient numbers of kids right now choosing to study STEM subjects,” stated STAWA CEO John Clarke.

Aside from the educational aspects and fun, for the winners of the Solar Challenge there is of course the glory and Synergy will be contributing $10,000 to go towards science equipment for the schools of both the winning regional Year 6 and 8 and Perth Year 6 and 8 teams.

With PV so popular in Western Australia, some of the students would have already been exposed to the benefits of solar energy at home  – Perth suburbs regularly feature in Australia’s top solar postcodes.

It’s great to see the young ‘uns as excited and inspired about solar power as some of we “oldies” – perhaps there’s some future solar installers and system designers among today’s participants.

The Perth forecast for today is reasonable mild, but partly cloudy (38 – 44% cloud cover for much of the day). Good luck to all involved – may the sun shine upon you and your cars!