Epro8: Budding engineers put skills to the test at Epro8 Challenge finals

The Baadies (Rahotu School), are Jamie Muggeridge, 11 (left), Kade Van der Hulst, 11, Leah Martins, 10, and Lydia Helms, 10.

Students put their engineering skills to the test at the Taranaki Epro8 Challenge grand finals last week.

The EPro8 Challenge is an engineering and problem-solving race that requires pupils to create large scale structures and mechanisms using maths, logics, and experimentation.

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Last week the semifinalists for the Year 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 age groups competed for their respective first place trophies.

Stratford Primary School's PiRates team: Meah Russ, 12 (left), Kira Parrett, 12, Hayden Grieg, 13, and Timothy Johnson, 13.

Stratford Primary School's Year 7 and 8 team the PiRates came first equal with Auroa School.

The team of Kira Parrett, 12, Meah Russ, 12, Timothy Johnson, 13, and Hayden Grieg, 13, went through to a tie-breaker round to decide the winner of the trophy.

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Meah says the team had four minutes to build the tallest structure.

"Our structure was over two metres tall but Auroa's was 3m long. They won the trophy."

Hayden enjoyed the electronic side of the challenges.

"I liked when the sequences were working correctly. It's pretty cool."

Winners of the 5 and 6 final were The Baadies, pupils Jamie Muggeridge, 11, Kade Van der Hulst, 11, Leah Martins, 10, and Lydia Helms, 10, from Rahotu School.

It had been the first time entering the competition for all four pupils, but that hadn't stopped them taking out first place on the day.

Lydia says she enjoys the high pressure environment of the competition, while for Jamie it was the actual planning and building he found most enjoyable. Kade also liked the building aspect of the challenge the best, while Leah said the whole thing was fun.

"I want to do it again."

Stratford Primary team 7, consisting of Lillie Belau, 10, Lucient Watson, 10, Kase Bason ,11, and Charlie Kerr, 10, came second equal on the day, after successfully designing and building a boat for it.

The team had come third in the semifinal and despite their higher final placing in the final, all agree the semi-final had been easier. Kase said the challenge in that round had been "much easier".

"This challenge was really hard."

The Stratford Primary year 5 and 6 team: Lillie Belau, 10 (left), Lucient Watson, 10, Kase Bason, 11, and Charlie Kerr, 10.