St Francis Xavier Catholic School, Year 5/6 Northpower EPro8 Champions, Sofia Higgins, Hewitt Pool, Adam Frazerhurst, Sienna MacPherson and teacher Brad Kini.
St Francis Xavier Catholic School, Year 5/6 Northpower EPro8 Champions, Sofia Higgins, Hewitt Pool, Adam Frazerhurst, Sienna MacPherson and teacher Brad Kini.
After some stiff competition, two schools have emerged successful in the 2022 Northpower EPro8 Challenge competition.
Whangārei Heads School and Saint Francis Xavier Catholic School have been crowned champions of the 2022 Northpower EPro8 Challenge competition.
The closely fought finals saw Whangārei Heads School win the Year 7-8 title in the science and engineering contest, while Xavier Catholic School took out the Year 5-6 division.
Both teams successfully built a sound system from a coil, magnets and a cardboard cone.
Whangārei Heads also created a tracking spotlight and St Francis built part of an electric drum kit.
The STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) competition had 624 students from almost 20 Northland schools take part.
Second and third place in the Year 7-8 event went to Mahurangi College and Kamo Intermediate. In the Year 5-6 competition, Hurupaki Primary came second and Kaurihohore School third.
Around 100 teachers and parents gathered at Kamo Intermediate to watch the hotly contested finals.
The calibre of the contestants impressed Northpower Community Outreach Facilitator Arriane Christie.
"All of the teams displayed great teamwork, dedication, excitement and drive. It was a real thrill to see young people enjoying themselves while learning," she said.
"It is a huge achievement that they can all be very proud of."
Christie said the Northpower-sponsored event provided a "real benefit" to school kids.
"It gives students a great opportunity to get involved with and learn about science, technology, engineering and maths, in a practical way."
EPro8 convenor Andrew Thiele revelled in the atmosphere created by the high-level competitors.
"Both of our winners built a fully operational speaker system. That was pretty good going, to be honest, and it was great to be back running our first event for nine months," he said.
"There was very little margin between the teams and that made for an exciting finish in the finals. There was a really positive energy in the room.''
Thiele said he hoped some schools in the next year will be able to give every student an opportunity to use the EPro8 equipment.
The 624 students participating in this year's series of EPro8 science and engineering-based events was a major jump from the 232 students who took part in 2021.
