Another STEM win for RBHS

MadMaker is a 6-week online course aimed at Year 9 and 10 students with a goal to educate them about embedded systems and their use in everyday life. It involves using Arduino Esplora boards to investigate fun and interactive ways to use science, technology, engineering and maths to solve real-world problems.

With the course there is a challenge where teams from around the country put forward their best STEM project for judging. A grade 8 team from Mr Doig's Engineering and Prototyping class consisting of Emma Pilgrim, Ethan Reed and Michael Duffet, won the event! This is an amazing achievement considering the competition consisted of the brightest STEM student in years 9 and 10 from around the country.

To quote the judges report - "Not only did the project demonstrate formative understanding of the underlying science, it clearly used other aspects learned throughout the course and applied them in reality. The level of thought, care and detail that was put into making their game an immersive experience was very impressive!

This is technically beyond what anyone can expect from a high school project, but also the presentation was fun, engaging and clearly showed how all the features worked. So it gives me great pleasure to announce Rose Bay High School the first place in the MadMaker Competition 2016!"

MadMaker Challenge: Competition Winners!

Hi Geoff,

We are delighted to announce the competition winners for the MadMaker Challenge 2016! We had so many great submission that it was too hard for us to judge. Thankfully we had some judges from The University and industry to help us!

We will be sending you all personalised certificates today! So sorry about the delay in this, I have been in the US so it fell a little behind schedule.

If you are a teacher who participated in the Challenge and haven't already done so, please fill in our teacher feedback survey! It really helps us out:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7Y6R3X2

Third Prize - Don't Go There - Parramatta High School, Sydney

Anish Ghai created a platform game called Don't Go There. Not only was the game well-designed and detailed, we loved the general-purpose nature of the game by using the pixel colours to detect the floor. The aesthetic and humour placed in the game combined with appropriate music was awesome!

The class has won an All-Access subscription to Grok Learning for 12 months!

This platform game has a lot of potential. The ardiuno as the control was really well done and I think the game concept is interesting. Well done with this game. - Marie Efstathiou, Google Australia

The project involved integrating various skills in different domains with a result that was innovative and well-designed. - Prof. David Lowe, Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Engineering and IT, The University of Sydney

Levels and challenge for the game player is very well thought out and had a very high level of difficulty! Very well-articulated and a desire to make the game challenging and general-purpose with use of colours was excellent! - Carmel Mosser, Microsoft Australia

Second Prize - PacFan - St Columba Anglican School, Port Macquarie

The PacFan was an amazing use of the Esplora for a real-world application. It used the temperature sensor of the Esplora to monitor the temperature and control a fan.

The video was incredibly well presented, and showed real ingenuity to identify a real-world problem and provide an innovative solution with a great interface.

They have won a class set of Arduino Starter Kits, valued at over $1500. I can't wait to see what they make with their electronics kit!

I really thought this was a great idea and was an interesting use of the Arduino board. I liked the gauge on the desktop to show the temperature change, I thought this was really user-friendly. The video itself was really descriptive and I feel like I understand the product. This is a problem I have faced with my laptop and I really like the solution. - Marie Efstathiou, Google Australia

Of the shortlisted projects Pacfan was the one that best leveraged the capabilities of the Esplora. Pacfan used both the temperature sensor and the Digital I/O on the Esplora board to control a cooling fan, and through this best demonstrated the opportunities enabled by embedded systems - Prof. David Lowe, Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Sydney

Great teamwork in this collaborative effort with all presenters participation evident.
A wonderful practical application of technology with feedback for the user and automatic turn on turn off depending on the surrounding environment, this was therefore eco friendly! Professional camera work and inspirational choice of score (music) made this a wonderful presentation. - Carmel Mosser, Microsoft Australia

First Prize - Rocket Landing Sim - Rose Bay High School, Hobart

We were blown away by this submission by Rose Bay High School in Hobart. Although the starting point was the Lunar Lander from Challenge 4, the result was barely recognisable. The amount of features that were added is crazy:

Asteroids
Fuel
Fuel Packs
Shields that deflect asteroids
Shield Packs
Levels of difficulty
Amount of time taken each level
Saving high scores to a file
A shop
Credit system for landing/crashing
A menu system
Level of fuel affecting the amount of thrust
Stars, background and cities
Reset the game
Return to menu

I'm not even sure if that is all of them. Not only did the project demonstrate formative understanding of the underlying science, it clearly used other aspects learned throughout the course and applied them in reality. The level of thought, care and detail that was put into making their game an immersive experience was very impressive!

This is technically beyond what anyone can expect from a high school project, but also the presentation was fun, engaging and clearly showed how all the features worked. So it gives me great pleasure to announce Rose Bay High School the first place in the MadMaker Competition 2016!

They have won an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer valued at $3,899!!

Huge thank you to Imaginables for providing the first place prize! Please check them out for all your 3D printer needs.

This looks like a fun game and the UI is really good looking. A lot of thought has gone into the game, with things like the difficulty levels. The high score system is also a great touch. - Marie Efstathiou, Google Australia

The game was innovative and the interface was very well designed. - Prof. David Lowe, Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Sydney

Love the different levels makes me want to be an EXPERT immediately! Great incentive to practice and of course from a commercial aspect this would be addictive, just what gaming companies would want! The presenter was confident and articulate, and the level of features that had been added seemed endless, correlation of power and fuel was really clever and showed real understanding of the science. So impressed! - Carmel Mosser, Microsoft Australia

There were too many great projects that were submitted for the MadMaker competition to mention! The diversity and creativity of the students really made us proud of what you were all able to achieve. So thank you!

The course will still be online throughout 2017, feel free to use it for your classes throughout the year.

Have a great holiday and Christmas!

Owen and Calla

on behalf of the The MadMaker Team

This email was sent to Geoffrey.doig@education.tas.gov.au
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The University of Sydney · Electrical Engineering Building J03 · The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 · Australia