Community & Business
26 October, 2022
Oakey students step up for hydrogen challenge
Oakey State High School is one of 20 schools in Australia, and the only Darling Downs representative school, in the Australian Horizon Hydrogen Grand Prix.
The Australian Horizon Hydrogen Grand Prix is an international competition to design, build and race hydrogen fuel cell-powered remote-controlled cars.
Last week, 17 Year 9 students began learning about the need, as a society, to look at alternative energy sources, different renewable resources, how to
store energy, then towards the end of the term, start designing their cars.
School principal Daniel Keenan said it was a rare opportunity for Oakey students who were excited to be involved.
“One in 20 throughout Australia is brilliant,” he said.
In term 1 of Year 10 the participants will create and decorate their cars and test them for endurance.
The task is to improve the car as much as possible so it can outlast the 19 other schools, in April next year at Gladstone’s first national competition and potentially the International competition in Dubai towards the end of 2023.
Horizon Educational representative Ales Rakovsky visited the school last Tuesday to provide professional development advice to the teachers of Year 9 Science and Year 10 Physics.
Horizon Educational will supply car components and lesson guides, however the students will produce hydrogen gas from water using small electrolysers and then design and build their own cell powered car which are about 40cm long.
Ales Rakovsky said Horizon was excited to have a Darling Downs team joining the inaugural Hydrogen Grand Prix.
Science Head of Department for Oakey State High School Jelena Edhouse said this was a unique opportunity for the students to be involved with technology that has only started to be used in real life applications, to supply energy to drive cars like the Toyota Mirai.
ANZ sponsorship gives the schools involved the chance to demonstrate their problem solving skills to a real life experience in which normally as a public school they could not be involved.
