Students Bring Science to Recycling

16th August 2017

 A team of Girton Grammar School Year 10 Science students is the overall winner of Melbourne University’s 2017 Amazing Spaghetti Machine Contest, for design and construction of an ingenious can crushing machine.

In a clean sweep of the competition, the team was also awarded The People’s Choice Award and the Technical Excellence Award.

Coordinated by the Melbourne School of Engineering, The Amazing Spaghetti Machine Contest is an annual competition open to Year 10 students in Victoria, who put their knowledge and skills in Mathematics, Science, Engineering, and Project Management to the test in the creation of a ‘spaghetti machine’ – an overly complex machine or device that is used to perform a relatively simple task.

This year’s participants, from all over Victoria, were challenged to create a machine that can crush an empty soft drink can and drop it into a recycling bin.

Headmaster at Girton Grammar School, Mr Matthew Maruff, said the annual Melbourne University competition provides the perfect opportunity for students to test their knowledge in a practical way.

“This is the fifth time our Year 10 Science students have won this Award so we are very pleased to see the sustained interest and effort in Science at the School.

“We also have a team of Year 11 Chemistry students who have ranked 6th out of 354 teams in Victoria to qualify for the National Titration Competition in October, run by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI).

“The RACI competition is a wonderfully practical competition based on a single scientific laboratory task.

“The Chemistry students had to determine the strength of a weak acid solution of unknown concentration by carrying out a series of acid-base titrations. Teams were ranked on how close they got to the actual concentration.

“Many of our VCE graduates go on to have careers in a range of scientific fields and we will continue to encourage our students to immerse in Science beyond the classroom through activities such as these.

“A focus on STEM subjects at school is essential if Australia is to remain internationally competitive in emerging technologies and the global economy.

“This means starting with an educational environment that supports this focus and preparing students to obtain a high level of technological literacy,” Mr Maruff said.

Melbourne Uni website: Melbourne Uni congratulates Girton Grammar