On Wednesday the 28th of June eight Year 9 students and six Year 10 students traveled to Western Sydney University Penrith Campus to compete in the Science and Engineering Challenge.
This challenge was organised by academics from the University of Newcastle and Western Sydney University.
Students competed in teams against students from seven schools including Bede Polding College, Marion College and Pendle Hill High School.
The week before the challenge students organised themselves in teams and chose the challenge or challenges they were to compete in.
Year 10 Teams and Challenges were:
Gerardo Pareja-Delgado; Andre Sen; Lachlan Jones
Challenge: Mission to Mars – Build a suspension system for a simple mars buggy.
Thomas Green; Tara Collison-Fulton; Aayushi Shah
Challenge: Confounding Communications – Design and send a coded message using optical fibre
Challenge: Helter Skelter Shelter – Build two towers to resist shaking and load
Year 9 Teams and Challenges were:
Samantha Wilson; James Bacon; Rachel Khalil; Claudia Estrada
Challenge: Grasping Straws – Build an articulated bionic hand
Challenge: Stringways – Infrastructure planning for a town
Hashwitaa Maynoor; Michelle Fu; Parachi Goyal; Priya Patel
Challenge: The Bridge – Construct a model bridge and test it
There were eight challenges in the competition. Ms May and Mrs Waygood decided that as this was our first time in the competition we would focus on enjoying the challenge and not on the prize and only compete in four of the challenges.
To add to this Ms May and Mrs Waygood asked one group to change their choice of challenge so that the College could compete in the final challenge of the day which was The Bridge Challenge.
Hashwitaa, Michelle, Parachi and Priya volunteered to take The Bridge Challenge. During the lunch break Ms May and Mrs Waygood found the students had decided that taking a lunch break was not an option as their bridge building was not working to plan.
In the final session St Andrews College was the first bridge to be tested. Hashwitaa, Michelle, Parachi and Priya had built a bridge that withheld an impressive amount of weight. After the next six bridges were tested none matched the St Andrews College bridge - our students were outstanding winners!
Lachlan, Gerardo and Andre were also winners of their buggy challenge.
At the end of the challenge St Andrews College was placed fifth. Students and teachers all agreed that if we had competed in all eight challenges St Andrews College would have placed even higher.
So the challenge for 2018 is to field a team in each challenge.
Ms May congratulates all students who participated in the challenge and extends a thank you to Mrs Waygood for her science expertise and assistance at the challenge. Thank you also goes to Mr Thrum and Mr McLeod who took time out of their day to drive to Kingswood.