SOAP BOX DERBY

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SUNSHINE COAST

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN ACTION Soap Box Derby

The Sunshine Coast campus organised an exciting assessment task using Project-based Learning (PBL) for their Year 10 Rookies. Over the course of the term earlier in 2022, young people in teams designed and built a go kart to eventually race their unique designs at the Nambour TAFE.

DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT.

WHAT IS PROJECT-BASED LEARNING?

PBL is a teaching method where young people learn by actively engaging in the real-world with personally meaningful projects across a variety of subjects. The project allows young people to develop deep content knowledge and also supports development of 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication.

Trevor Hodgett, Sunshine Coast Team Leader, gives insight into how the Go Kart Project took off. “At the start of the year we became excited about the concept of a PBL assessment. In Term 2 we took the Year 10 group and split them into teams to prepare for the huge task ahead.”

Scott Butler, Sunshine Coast Team Leader adds. “I feel that having a project like this and progressing it through the whole term really suited our young people. The different style of learning was important, and we could see the benefits of that. The engagement has been fantastic. “The assessment pieces for each subject were embedded within the kart build and the assignment. They were still covering all elements in Design and Technology, Science, English and Math but it was geared towards the kart build project.”

During Science they learnt about the physics involved in their design and during Maths they learnt how to analyse qualitative data in order to understand the mechanics. Learning about the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the design was only part of the process. During English young people needed to develop a marketing pitch for their kart and learn about the art of persuasive speech and effective communication.

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Trevor says, “we welcomed April Ford of the April Ford Digital Marketing agency in Maroochydore to assist us with our Year 10 literacy advertising pitches.

April kindly sat through the presentation from each group and provided feedback on how they could tweak their pitches for maximum effect. “Young people were fantastic in their delivery and the work they put into their pitches showed. Having to deliver their ideas to an industry professional in a boardroom also added an element of realism to the PBL.”

AITC CEO Mark Hands, says staff appreciated PBL as it allowed young people to “fail forward” throughout the design, build and test phases.

Trevor says, “one thing that is clear to us is that learning is not just about the grade. We saw immense learning in the actual failings and successes that they had every day during the project. That was in terms of teamwork, figuring things out, moving forward with a plan, and getting to build the go kart and having fun. It was all rolled into one. There was massive development in young people throughout the project. Scott says at the beginning there was a lot of ‘she’ll be right’ approach. By the end of the project young people were starting to see the importance of planning, and they were reflecting in a way which we hadn’t seen before. They were saying, ‘If we could do this project again we would need to structure the kart better.’ It was fantastic to see.”

Reflection showed the learning in a new dimension. Scott added, “virtually every day they were trying something new. It was tough for us to step back and let them do things on their own. But at the beginning of term we told them ‘failing forwards’ is part of the project. With failing comes learning. They certainly did that!” says Scott. “They had the reflection at the end of every day and at the end of the term we had a lively discussion with everyone in the class. They were giving feedback on themselves and being brutally honest about what they could do better.”

DELIBERATELY DIFFERENT.

The Finish Line

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our young people during their Soap Box Derby Race Day. Our Year 10 Rookies did an incredible job of putting together their go-karts and the time trials were intense — not to mention the final jump. There were close calls, spills, thrills and lots of laughter. Competitiveness and camaraderie were the themes of the day with our final winners being Ronan, Grayson and Corbin. This was an exciting part of the culmination of hard work for this Project Based Learning exercise. Many hours of work and research went into these designs and the finished products were outstanding. We had the Black Pearl, the Jamaican Bobsled Team, Mario Kart, Illegally Blonde and so many more.

See Soap Box Derby highlights reel