HPV - Human Powered Vehicle

BUPS has been participating for over 20 years in the Human Powered Vehicle program. The program is offered to students at BUPS in grades 4-6. The students train twice a week, out of school hours and participate in various competitions throughout the year, culminating in the RACV Energy Breakthrough Human Powered Vehicle Race, held in November in Maryborough, Victoria. This is one of the biggest events held for students in Australia with hundreds of schools participating, from primary through to senior secondary school.

The Racv Energy Breakthrough is an exciting program designed to provide opportunities for students, teachers, parents and local industry to work together to design and construct a vehicle, a machine or innovation in technology that will represent an energy breakthrough. School groups work throughout the year to design, build and test vehicles or machines within detailed specifications. It requires a team effort and an across-the-curriculum approach. These groups then bring their vehicles and machines to Maryborough in November, for a huge celebration in which they can demonstrate and trial them in action.

The Racv Energy Breakthrough is a joint initiative of the country education Project, the Central Goldfields Shire Council and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV).

The Racv Energy Breakthrough aims to ….

  • Provide an excellent technology project for students from FOUNDATION to VCE level
  • Encourage young people to explore solutions to environmental and transport issues
  • Provide an opportunity for women and girls to participate in what has traditionally been a ‘male’ dominated area of the curriculum
  • Be a fun program with real world challenges
  • Offer students opportunities to explore and address vehicle design, driving skills and vehicle and passenger safety issues.