Engineering a School Musical

As the Mount St Benedict College Musical Production of Beauty and The Beast draws near, it is all hands on deck to get the production ready. Year 11 Engineering students have been working hard on creating the first fully functioning water fountain for an amateur production.

The inaugural all girls Engineering class have worked on the project from the ground up. They collaborated to formulate required materials, complete finance schedules, project timing and a feasibility study within tight deadlines.

Year 11 student, Georgina Chan, said it was a very different learning experience and that the girls loved working on a ‘real’ project.

Fellow Year 11 classmates, Olivia Patterson and Angelina Wehbe thought it was a challenging project that enabled them to put classroom theory into practice.

“We feel like engineers as the fountain will have a prime purpose for the two-hour production.”

The budding student engineers had clear design specifications to achieve, including creating a mobile fountain that could move on and off the stage quickly in between sets.The young designers also had to ensure that the fountain was strong enough to withstand the cast standing, jumping or sitting on the surrounding area of the fountain. The girls purposefully designed the fountain to run on solar power with only a couple of hours in the sun needed to charge up before a performance.

Mount St Benedict College Engineering Teacher, Mr Ed Baker, said that he was impressed with the competency of the girls’ skills and their enthusiastic approach to the project.

“It was a wonderful hands-on experience with the students using drills, upskilling themselves and strengthening friendships through a shared purpose. Being an engineer means that you are commissioned to complete work for a particular project, and this is what creating this fountain has achieved for our students.”

Beauty and The Beast will commence at Mount St Benedict College from Wednesday 19 June until Saturday 22 June. Bookings are now open: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=500502&