EPro8 Challenge

Four of our students (Kohl-Lee, Tyrone, Chace and Shalom) competed in the regional Epro8 challenge.  There are roughly 7,000 students around New Zealand that take part, and funnily it was the first time it had come to Northland.

The ePro8 challenge focuses on engineering, problem solving and coming up with innovative ideas - hence how they got its name.  It was an amazing event that the children thoroughly enjoyed being apart of.  They had to option of completing 4 challenges each with their own set of criteria.  Their aim was to complete as many tasks or criteria as possible, accruing the allocated points for each task.  The team with the most points would qualify to compete in the semi-finals and finals the following week.

The tamariki loved every aspect of this event.  They learnt a lot along the way - the importance of communicating and listening to each other, working as a team, reading and following instructions, planning and following those plans, even working to time constraints.  

This event has motivated our classroom to learn more about electronics, circuits, constructing 3D objects to suit desired goals, coding, electricity, coding....

If you are interested in learning more about epro8 here is the link.

 Here they're trying to attach a light to shine on 'uncle' who struggles to wake up in the morning.  They've set the light to turn on when the sun rises and alarm goes off.

 Each team were given their own workstation with all the gadgets they'd need to complete the tasks.  These included batteries, cogs, wheels, screws, joiners, wingnuts, pulleys, reels, axles, gears, buzzers, multiboxes, solar battery, magnet sensor, lights, switch boxes, push buttons...

This is them learning how to construct a bed that was at least 45 cm wide and 1.2 m tall.