They did not really know what they were in for when they competed in the EPro8 Challenge in Whanganui last month but the St Anne's team took home the trophy and tonight they will compete in the regional final in Palmerston North.
EPro8 is an engineering and problem-solving race devised by former Whanganui man Kelvin Thiele to provide young competitors with "what would have been my dream event to enter when I was 11-years-old".
3D printers may not have been around when Mr Thiele was 11, but he uses one to create all the components for the challenges and has turned his dream into a national competition.
"The pieces are a bit like giant meccano and you have to work as a team to find out how they should go together," said St Anne's team member Natalya Ross.
Teams of four have two-and-a-half hours to complete six challenges in building and construction, invention, vehicle construction, electronics, problem-solving and experimentation.