On Tuesday, May 8 Year 5/6 students from Bulahdelah Central School travelled to the Taree Racecourse for the science and engineering challenge.
A number of students who participates prepared reports of the day.
Izabell Read and Elise Miles said “The first thing we had to do when we got there was meet our team mates from Elands Public School.
“We got into our school groups and sat down while the coordinator told us what the science and engineering challenge was all about.
“There were eight activities that our school had to complete throughout the day.
“Our team was a yellow group and our first activity was Mars Rover. Mars Rover was an activity where you had to build a buggy out of bolts, a piece of rectangle wood and a little square block with grips on both sides to hold the test block.
“The aim was to pull your buggy with string across red bumps that started little and got bigger with a block on top that you couldn’t secure in any way.
“After this activity we had a quick lunch break. Lunch was a sausage sizzle cooked by the lovely Lions Club volunteers.
“When we finished lunch we went to our next activity, “string-along” which consisted of two lengths of string a board with 82 bolts which have towns and black lines between them which are pathways.
“There were six different scenarios, and the aim of this activity was to connect the towns and cities in the most efficient network possible. The shorter the string used, the more points your team earned. In the end we had 1428 points. We learnt that if you miss some you end up with a lot more string at the end.
“After the string-along activity we went back into the meeting place where we watched a science demonstration. It was fun to watch the foam rockets and sodium bicarbonate fizzing rockets.
“The day finished up with the bridge testing which was really exciting. They finally announced the places of the schools and how excited we all were to find out Bulahdelah Central School had won. We were so happy!”
Nate Redman and Cole Buchanan spoke about a different activity, called “electropolis”.
“In electropolis we had to build a power network, we had to get as many cables to as many places in the city as possible for the least cost,” they said.
Meanwhile, Mia McDonald, Sasha Middleton and Kaitlyn Smith were taking part in the “earthquake” activity.
“We had to build a tower that would hold weights,” they said.
“The only objects we had to build the tower with were paper, straws, and tape.
“Our tower held up to five weights while the earthquake machine was vibrating.
“Our team’s tower held the most amount of weights and we won our session.”
