Sacred Heart College students take on Young Enterprise Trust, The Mission: Sustainable Challenge

Sacred Heart College students pictured with a prototype at the Mission: Sustainable Challenge.

Sacred Heart College students developed solutions to real-world sustainability issues in an innovation challenge, aimed at sparking an interest in the primary industries.

Run by the Young Enterprise Trust, The Mission: Sustainable Challenge was held at the War Memorial Centre last week, with Year 10 students selected from around the region to take part.

The challenge required students to apply their subject knowledge and use design thinking to come up with an innovative solution to a real-life sustainability issue being faced by the primary sector.

Teams of four, made up of two pairs from different schools, created a prototype and presented their ideas to industry experts, and their peers.

Three of the five Sacred Heart College pairs were in the final six that presented to the audience.

Sacred Heart students Violet Unwin and Caitlin Montaperto-Wells were in the winning team with two St John's College students, and each received a $50 prezzie card.

Caitlin says she really enjoyed the day and being in the winning team was a bonus.

Her team focused on creating a solution for a shortage of forestry workers.

"The machine chops down trees with lasers so it doesn't need people, and it uses AI to find a suitable spot to put the trees."

Sneha Jenson and Laura Brassington were paired with students from Wairoa College. Together they designed a motion detector which detects when predators are nearby.

"It uses artificial intelligence and has a 360-degree camera that films the surroundings and sends it directly to your smartphone."

Sneha says it was "very interesting". She enjoyed learning more about AI and what potentially can be achieved in the primary sector.

Sacred Heart College deputy principal Marysia Airey says it provided an opportunity for students to learn more about the opportunities available within primary industries and the application of technological advances.

"Because students don't normally connect with industries at this age, a day like this actually allows that spark to develop."

Ten Sacred Heart students with an interest in social studies, science and business studies were nominated by their teachers to attend the day. One of the aims was to reinforce learning in the classroom.