Bulahdelah Central School has been awarded the title of Champion School at the Mid-Coast Science and Engineering Challenge in Taree.
Showing impressive innovation and problem-solving skills, the Year 5 and 6 students claimed the win ahead of five other participating schools.
The competition involved a day of hands-on challenge designed to inform and inspire students about careers in Science and Engineering.
The students created towers, built bridges, constructed transportation vehicles and mastered electronics during the competition.
Year 5 student Maddi Tassell was part of the winning bridge construction team and said many different skills were needed to successfully build a solid bridge.
“The day taught us how to design, construct and test models for strength,” she said.
“I learnt that a bridge will not stand up without bottom support and it will break if it doesn’t have any support at all.”
Organising Teacher Mrs Sonia McDonald said she was very pleased with the win by her students with the competition showing the budding Engineers how exciting design and construction can be.
“The students were given a limited range of resources to construct the strongest model that they could produce,” Mrs McDonald said.
“Points were awarded for building the most effective models using the least amount of resources.”
Mrs McDonald said this also taught the students about sustainability and conservation.
Sponsored by Mid-Coast Water, the competition was arranged by the Science and Engineering Faculties at the University Of Newcastle with Zone Four Rotary Clubs playing a lead role in the organisation.
By Daniel SAHYOUN