Central Robotics: Hāwera High School robotics team place first at competition

The Hāwera High School and St Peter's College Palmerston North won the tipping point competition. Photo/ Supplied

South Taranaki High School students have showed their skills at the Central Robotics competition.

Hāwera High School was one of 16 teams in the combined VEX Robotics and Vex IQ challenge competition at Palmerston North. The competition was the first event of the 2020-2021 season.

The Hāwera team, alongside St Peter's College in Palmerston North, took out top place in the Vex Robotics Tipping point competition.

Two teams form an alliance and compete in matches. The object of the game is to get a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring rings, moving mobile goals to alliance zones, and by elevating on platforms at the end of a match.

The two teams won the finals. Hāwera High School teacher Grant Collie says the teams are pleased with the results.

"Both teams worked really well together. It's a fantastic result."

Central Robotics vice chairman Stephan Van Haren says the competitions are a great learning experience.

"The teams apply technical skills by designing and building robots as well as using team work to collaborate with other teams."

Hāwera High School Year 13 student Cullun Wallis says the competitions are beneficial.

"It's a great way to learn and reinforce my knowledge of Stem subjects. "This is great for my education as I can apply my classroom knowledge from physics, calculus, and digital programming into a constructive medium where I can play around with the concepts related to the theory and use them to gain a competitive edge over the competition."

He says the competition gives participants the opportunity to see the design process turn into reality.

"We can see scribbles into a fully functional metal machine. The Robotics Club is also something I take great pride in as I can develop my leadership in the role of captain as I am able to mentor my peers and the younger students at Hawera High School. I can allow them to preserve their curiosity of how the world around them works and show them the wonders of mathematics and physics and what you can do with it."