Northland students loving EPro8 Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths competition

Aria (Year 7), Kobi (Year 8), and Sophia (Year 7) at the Northpower EPro8 Challenge this week. They said the challenge was fun.

A science and engineering contest for students is so popular in Northland that more than double the number of youngsters are taking part in this year's event.

The Northpower EPro8 Challenge is underway for 2022, with a record 624 students competing in the series of science and engineering-based events. This is almost triple the number that took part in 2021 (232).

A total of 156 teams from 21 schools - one from Kaikohe, five from Kaipara and 15 from Whangārei - are contesting for the honour of Year 5/6 champion and Year 7/8 champion in the Northland Regional Final.

This year's series started with an EPro8 Internal Event that is run within each school.

This allows a lot more students to be involved. Teams are constructing robotic scarecrows, concrete mixers and a random decision maker (a ramp that a ball will roll down, with a bunch of bolts so that the route the ball takes is random).

The top two teams from each school will make their way to the inter-school semifinals and grand finals at Kamo Intermediate School over three days from May 3 to 5. At the finals they will be given new engineering-based challenges.

Event organiser and EPro8 founder Kelvin Thiele said schools have all the EPro8 kits they need.

Moana (Year 7) said the Northpower EPro8 Challenge was fun, but also a bit stressful at the last minute as everyone was running around trying to get their creation finished.

"We provide them the challenges, scoring system, that big red button to press when they have completed a task and a leaderboard," Thiele said.

"With the inter-school events the students are benefiting from more time to practise with the construction equipment. The electronic components will be added to the challenge when we get to the semis and finals to add another dimension to the challenge."

Northpower customer experience manager Rachel Wansbone is delighted with the enthusiasm of the students and teachers taking part in the popular STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) competition.

"To have doubled the number of students involved in 2022 is really pleasing and we wish them the best in the Northpower EPRo8 Challenge," she said.

Arlo, Poppy, Gemma and Tilly (Year 5 students) said the Epro8 school challenge was definitely a challenge, but fun.

"Last year Northpower invested in four sets of the EPro8 construction equipment which we have been lending to schools around Kaipara and Whangārei for students to hone their skills. We have seen in recent years how much students have advanced in their knowledge of STEAM in Northland due to their experience with EPro8. Along with Kelvin, we want to continue working with local schools and keep expanding the immensely positive impact of EPro8 on students."

The EPro8 Challenge is an inter-school science and engineering competition with over 22,000 students from throughout New Zealand taking part annually to complete a variety of science- and engineering-based challenges.

The EPro8 Challenge starts with an internal event that teachers run within their own school. For information check out www.epro8challenge.co.nz.