Three groups of Thames High School students engineered a storm at the EPro8 Inter-School event in Hamilton on June 24 and June 25.
The annual science and engineering competition sees around 35,000 students from across New Zealand take part.
But the Thames High students didn’t just take part, they dominated their challenges with two junior teams smashing out first and second places and the senior team snapping up fourth place.
Each team has secured entry into the semi-finals, which will take place on June 30 for senior students and July 1 for juniors.
Year 10 Alex Atrill, whose team took out the top spot, told The Profile he was excited to head to the semi-finals and for the chance to progress on to the grand final and “maybe win”.
Thames High digital technology teacher Jesse Watson said he was proud of the students and happy to see them go on to the next round after all their practice had come together.
Jesse coached the students for the last term and a half once a week after school leading up to EPro8.
He said the junior challenge involved students setting up a solar panel that followed the sun – or in this instance, a torch, from east to west.
It worked by connecting a motor to gears that turned the panel as the light sensor followed the light, he said.
“They then connected a sequence box so the panel would rotate around to rest in position for the next ‘morning’.”
It’s undeniable the team worked well as a unit and all stepped up to the plate to make things happen.
Alex said he thought the team had a pretty good system.
“We all work together, flip flop around, do a bunch of different things. But a couple of people usually tend to work on electronics more than others. Some people work on building a frame, and it’s basically whoever comes up with a working idea first, just test it out, see if it works. If it does, great. We make sure everything’s stable and working and get the judge to come check it out. But if it doesn’t, then we can run through the next idea.”
Alex said some people had tasks they enjoyed doing more than others.
“I know a couple of people that really enjoy doing electronics but don’t particularly like the actual building.
“Anytime there’s a math question, I’m always the first one to volunteer for that. I always try to go for challenges with those ones because they’re usually pretty quick.”
Jesse said to prepare for the semi-finals, they would chat about what went well at last week’s comp, what didn’t go well and some of the traps and pitfalls that could happen and also practice.
Alex’s advice for students curious to know more about EPro8 or joining the Wednesday practice group was “if you’re interested, just give it a shot”.
“You might find it’s your thing, [or] might find it doesn’t really suit you, but there’s no harm in giving it a try.”
It might interest students who are into machines, have a technical mind or like to take things apart and put them back together, Jesse said.
“If you like tinkering with things, finding out how machines work and watching them work, then you would probably be interested in this.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
