South Australia

Year 5 – 6

First Place

Periodic Table Hungry Snake
Florence Fang
Scotch College Adelaide Junior School

My goal for this project was to create a version of the game Hungry Snake but instead of food popping up on the screen for the snake to eat, a few elements in the periodic table would show up, and the players would have to eat them in the order that they are in on the periodic table.

Gamified learning can be more fun than normal learning because lots of children prefer to play games, so making a game into a learning experience can be very helpful.

I chose this subject because I am interested in science. I was given a copy of the periodic table, and I had tried to remember the elements on there, but I always found it very difficult, so I wanted to make a game to help other children to remember the periodic table.

Second Place

Piezo Power
Kishan Saha, Hayden Kong, Tennyson McLeod, Curtis Tham
Scotch College Adelaide Junior School

We want to produce sustainable and renewable energy in a new way. We did lots of research and learned about electronics in class. Our solution is capture energy using piezo elements by adding pressure plates to crowded areas (like busy streets/entrance ways to busy buildings, airports, or even a gym or shopping mall) and produce energy via the footsteps.
The issues we faced were:
• Finding a way to store the energy that the piezo elements produce.
• Finding a way to maximize the energy created by the piezo element.
• Not loosing energy while its moving to the supercapacitor.
This is a work in progress. We excited to make a fully functional prototype which can produce and store energy created by footsteps.

Third Place

Basketball Score Keeper
Alex Oats, Curtis Rendell, Jack Bulter
Morphett Vale Primary School

We have chosen the keep score for basketball because everybody knows that it’s annoying how the scores aren’t correct or they are unsure what the score is. It’s important that everybody knows the score so that fights can’t happen and we can know if someone is right about the score and I think it could help our school and maybe other schools problems. A problem we have thought of is that when people go to score a goal the ball might hit the micro bit and that it might break the micro bit so that we can’t use it anymore. But we are going to make a guard for it so that it doesn’t break and we can keep using it. 

Year 7 – 8

First Place

Intelligent Bin
Charles Tang
Prince Alfred College

Intelligent bin is a smart bin that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to segregate different kinds of rubbish. Rubbish that isn’t being sorted properly is an increasingly large issue that must be stopped. If all your rubbish is dumped into landfill, then as it decomposes it will release methane, which, coincidentally, is the most harmful greenhouse gas and a major cause of global warming and climate change. By accurately sorting out rubbish instead of dumping it all together it not only takes up less space, but it also makes the world a more sustainable place and reduces our ecological footprint, as well as being better for public health and the environment.

By sorting and separating rubbish like plastics, metals, and papers, the rubbish will take up less space, pollution will be substantially reduced, and reusable materials won’t be wasted. If rubbish is dumped into landfill, then will eventually be dumped into the ocean, becoming a part of a floating garbage patch it the ocean. Most of the rubbish in garbage patches could’ve been recycled to save money, but it would now take hundreds of million dollars to remove and is not a pleasant habitat for animals.

Year 11 – 12

First Place

Stack
Stuart Vass

STACK is a game where you play as a stack of blobs collecting coins while avoiding the balls. You can play either by yourself or with a friend in co-op mode. The more coins collected, the taller your character (a stack). The game has been developed for all ages, but especially for 6 to 25-year-olds as an engaging, mindfulness, passing-the-time game – particularly important nowadays.

To explore how to play the game, as well as learn why it was designed the way it and sample game play, please watch the five-minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF_phkYq3S0

Second Place

Graphing Images using Functions
Stuart Vass

Our teacher asked us to write an advanced mathematical investigation paper on creating images using functions. Did I do that? Of course, I did. But for interest’s sake, I also made a video to explore, discuss and share with my teacher and other students.

This project is an example of how a mathematical assessment can be done both as a paper and meet the curriculum requirements but also then as an engaging explanation video, pitched at two levels, so that not only those that understand the mathematics will get it, but those are still to learn this level of mathematics will still be able to follow the story.

This video took an extra 20 hours on top of the regular investigation, but it was worth it! (And I would do it again). An accompanying video explanatory video, in addition to my submitted paper, was an innovative way to not only deepen my knowledge but broaden the discussion on the topic with teachers, students, and friends.

This project is an example of using digital technology tools and skills to solve a real-world problem innovatively – my advanced mathematics homework!