Twelve schools compete against each other in the challenge, created by former Whanganui man Kelvin Thiele, with teams made up of four students to a workstation.
Each team receives a booklet full of challenges, it is up to the students to choose which ones they undertake and they have three hours to complete as many as possible.
Points are determined by the difficulty of the challenge and are updated to a live leaderboard by a judge, who reviews the challenges at the press of a big red button.
One challenge requires students to build a safe and then wire it up to include a door alarm and trip wire using electronic modules.
Another sees students attempt to build a moon rover, which needs to be able to carry 5kg and needs a gearbox to control its speed.
"We did exceptionally well, our year 5 and 6 team were equal first with Kaitoke School and our year 7 and 8 team came second," Ms Moorhouse said.
"It was quite exciting towards the end, they shut the scoreboard down because the points were very close, so you weren't sure who was winning."
The top 3 finishers in each age group go through to compete in Manawatu on April 10 and 11. In the year 5-6 age group, Brunswick School finished third to join Fordell and Kaitoke.
Brunswick also won in the year 7-8 category and will go through with Fordell and either Whangaehu School or St George's School who finished equal third.
"The kids are really hyped up about it, they're great team workers and that shows the Fordell way, our kids work together," Ms Moorhouse said.
"I'd say they can wind up in jobs that haven't even been invented today, that's what they're saying, the future is unknown.
"It's about us preparing our students to be problem solvers and creative thinkers, enabling them to tackle whatever is put in front of them."