Archibull Prize, a game changer for Beaudesert State High School’s curriculum

Students will research their allocated agricultural industry – wool – and show their findings through artwork, using a fibreglass bull, and producing an online blog.

The national Art4Agriculture program to educate students about farming and natural resources has also been a game changer for the Beaudesert school’s curriculum.

Teachers will use the development of their Archibull Prize entry, which will be based on robotics, as a learning tool in classrooms.

Maths teacher Vincent Kruger said the program was helping shape his classes to make learning more fun.

“We will be learning new skills because now that we’ve prepared classes dedicated to this, we’ll spend a lot of time in developing what the kids know rather than a quick crash course (in soldering, code and robotics) like last year,” he said.

Agriculture teacher Laura Perkins said students were more confident with learning about the wool industry than last year’s cotton industry.

“It’s different because a lot of our agricultural science and husbandry classes do a lot of learning about the sheep and wool industry… it’s closer to home so they’re familiar with it,” she said.

Ms Perkins said more students, schools and community groups would be brought into the fold.

“Hillview State School will be lending a hand in term three and getting involved in the creation … some ladies in the community will also be knitting some clothing accessories for bull,” she said.

“We are also working with and against (Beaudesert State School) who have entered into the competition.

“Our students will help mentor the primary school students and we’ll be competing for the overall grand champion Archibull Prize but they have a chance to win the primary school category and so do we with the high school category.”

Ms Perkins said to add another level of competitiveness, the high school would hold a contest among students and staff to name the wooly bull.

Last year, the school made history by entering a robotic cotton wool bull, Bullinda, in their first year of competing and as a result, they won the Jim Pratley Innovation in Technology Award.

They were the first school to have added lights, sounds and noises to their entry since the competition began in 2010.

Ms Perkins said they might have started a trend with using robotics but the school would improve their skills for a better entry result.

“We’re presuming other schools will try to include movements or light and sounds in theirs after they’ve seen what can be done with Bullinda from last year so we need to make sure we stay on top and do better,” she said.