Systems Engineering / Maths

Systems Engineering

The ‘Six Drops of Salt Water Challenge’

Year 11 Systems Engineering students were given the challenge of building a salt water powered vehicle to climb a 1 metre, 30 degree slope in the fastest time carrying as much weight as possible. Twenty students vied for top spot on the ladder. Students were given 1 point for each second under the bench mark 23 seconds and 1 point for every 5 grams carried in a trailer. VCE Systems Engineering involves the design, creation, operation and evaluation of integrated systems, which are used and control many aspects of our lives. The study encourages students to identify and quantify system goals, alternative system designs, concepts of trial and error and design tradeoffs. The ‘Six Drops of Salt Water Challenge’ promoted innovative systems thinking and problem-solving skills through the Systems Engineering Process. The study provides opportunities for students to learn about and engage with systems from a practical and purposeful perspective. It prepares students for careers in engineering, manufacturing and design through either a university or TAFE vocational study pathway, employment, apprenticeships or traineeships. The winner of the ‘Six Drops of Salt Water Challenge’ was ‘Team Morgan’ (Morgan Borley, Patrick O’Grady and Tristan Johnstone) who built a ramp for their salt powered ‘Brick and Stone’ vehicle. The vehicle weighed an incredible 2.85 kg and relied on potential energy and gravity to climb the ramp in 2 seconds. The points were divided among the team members. Special mention must go to Luke Tikellis who came 5th in the challenge with his idea of using the salt water powered engine to wind a heavily geared Lego spring motor. The spring motor was then used to power a Lego three wheeled vehicle up the slope in under 1 second. Who would have thought that that six tiny drops of salt water would inspire such excellence in Systems Engineering. Mr Paul Maxted

Mathematics

It has been a busy year for Mathematics at De La Salle College, starting off with a celebration with Stephen Ciavarella receiving the Premier’s Award for VCE Further Mathematics; this is particularly exceptional as he was in Year 11 when he sat his VCE exam. Back to reality, the Department has been busy running after-school Mathematics help for students at Kinnoull on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays with the help of senior students, and at Tiverton on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We were lucky to have the assistance of the very capable Matthew Taylor (Year 12, 2012) to come and help at the Tiverton ‘Maths Help’. A new Numeracy Support program was set up for the Year 7’s and following its success, will be extended to Years 8 and 9 in 2014 to help cater to all our students. As part of our enrichment program in Mathematics, some of our high performing Mathematics students took part in the statewide Maths Games days organised by the Mathematical Association of Victoria. Against strong competition, our boys performed extremely well. A particularly pleasing result was the overall performance of one of our Year 10 teams who came 20th against 120 very strong teams where the top ten are dominated by selective and high performing private schools. We also had a large number of students competing in the Australian Mathematics Competition in August with some excellent results