St Joseph's School Stratford pupils Ethan Gilmour (13), Ellie Morris (12), Kaylynn Pulman (13) and Noah Webb (13) came second in the EPro8 Taranaki grand final.
St Joseph's School Stratford pupils Ethan Gilmour (13), Ellie Morris (12), Kaylynn Pulman (13) and Noah Webb (13) came second in the EPro8 Taranaki grand final.
Four budding engineers have won second place in a Taranaki-wide competition.
St Joseph’s School Stratford’s Mechanic Masters team of Ethan Gilmour (13), Ellie Morris (12), Kaylynn Pulman (13) and Noah Webb (13) came second in the EPro8 Taranaki grand final late last month. The EPro8 Challenge is an inter-school science and engineering competition for year 5-8 pupils.
Ethan says the team had to place in the top three in the semifinals.
“We placed third in the competition. We weren’t expecting it, but we’re happy with where we got.”
Noah says the team also didn’t expect to come second in the grand final. “I feel proud of our team.”
During the finals, they had to pick and complete one challenge in 2½ hours using the EPro8 Electronics Kit. Teams have a range of challenges they can choose from. Kaylynn says the team decided to attempt the Space Invaders challenge.
The Mechanics Masters worked on the Space Invaders challenge.
“We had to design an alien and attach it to a frame and make it move. We also had to make a bazooka to shoot the alien. The first hour we planned how we would do it and then for the rest of the time we built it.”
It was Sophie and Kaylynn’s first time taking part in the EPro8 challenge and Sophie says it was a good experience.
Noah had been to the grand finals event in 2021 and he says the experience helped him.
“The kit we used at the finals is different to what we have at school so it helped having the experience with the kit. It made all the wiring and getting the sequences right much easier.”
There was a little bit of sibling rivalry during the competition, with Noah’s younger brother Harry (12) in the school’s Not Fast Just Furious team which also made it through to the grand final. Harry, along with Flynn Gordon (11), Thiemo Hanne (12) and Sophia Wallis (12) had taken out first place in the semifinal a week before.
From back left: Sophia Wallis (12), Thiemo Hanne (12), Harry Webb (12) and Flynn Gordon (11) won the semifinal round of the EPro8 challenge. Photo / Alyssa Smith
Flynn says he and his team had 2½ hours to complete the rat wheel challenge.
“This challenge sounded fun and easy, so we picked it. We made a rat wheel with an axle to generate enough power to keep a light on for 30 seconds. Then we had to take a light off and power a car to bring the rat its cheese. It was both challenging and fun.”
Harry says there were plenty of challenges to overcome.
“We had to redo the frame, reinforce the axle and then change wires around to make the electricity work.”
It wasn’t until the last minute that they found out they had won. Each time they completed one of the criteria, such as creating the frame, they earned points. Thiemo says, when they finished the challenge, they were in second place.
Sophia says tidying up their workplace helped them earn the needed points.
“We can receive tidy-up points and points for finishing our challenge. The screen at the event stopped working so we didn’t know we had won until it was announced.”
The Not Fast Just Furious team work on their challenge as one of the judges looks on.
Teacher Ethan Hughes says both teams can be proud of their accomplishments.
“They worked well together and had a lot of fun on the day, which is what matters.”
