15 December 2021

A team of creative STEM students from Christ the King School, Newcomb, are taking their invention to the world stage.

The school’s FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team, ‘Cre8te the Future’, competed in the national final earlier this week and were presented with the Innovation Award. The win propels them to the global level, one of only 20 schools from Australia competing against schools from around the world.

The FLL competition’s theme this year was ‘cargo’. The Cre8te the Future team came up with the idea of creating more sustainable packaging, which could be recycled – particularly if broken during transit. The package is called the ReBOX and is made out of milk bottle tops. Instead of going into landfill, the bottle tops can be repurposed as they are made out of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) which is the type of plastic that can be reused again and again.

The team designed the ReBOX prototype using Tinkercad software and then printed out their design using the school’s 3D printer. The ReBOX also has the added feature of a GPS tracker so that people know exactly where their parcel is during transit. The judges described the innovative design as a solution that demonstrated capability beyond their years.

This isn’t the first time Christ the King School has participated in the FLL competition. In 2018, the school’s team travelled to Hungary as part of the open invitational event. This year’s regional and national finals have taken place remotely.