On Tuesday 25 July, Columba had four teams competing in the EPro8 Challenge – an interschool Science and Technology competition. 

The teams were set up at a workstation containing an impressive assortment of electronics, metal parts and equipment. The teams were given a booklet containing a number of challenges (from building structures to inventing machines), and they got to choose which challenges they wanted to attempt. The harder the challenge, the more points it was worth. When the teams completed a challenge they pressed their big red button, which set off flashing lights and music. They were then judged and a live leaderboard was updated.

The Columba teams quickly picked their challenges, with three of the four teams choosing to build bridges. The Columba SAS team (Year 8) shot to the top of the leaderboard, building an amusement park themed structure that held a balloon 2.4 meters up in the air.

The Columba Chemicals (Year 7) persevered with their bridge, and after nearly two hours their hard work paid off and they went from last place to third. When the final buzzer went, two Columba teams were tied for third place. They were given a tiebreaker task, which the Columba SAS team quickly completed to qualify for the Otago regional EPro8 challenge.

Our teams:

SAS – Maddie Anton, Grace Johnson, Zoe Revell-Lynch and Sofia Reid (3rd place)

Chemicals – Grace Darling, Yasmin Khan, Catherine Lund and Bridgette Sutton (3rd place)

Dove Transformers – Sophie Bowmar, Lucy Cowie, Annabelle Hurst and Kate Oliver

Columba Rockets – Elloise Cameron, Neve Graamans, Poppy Henderson and Charlotte Milne

Mrs Hayden and I were really proud of the effort all the girls put in and how well they worked together - it was incredibly impressive to watch. A big thank you also to the parents who also came to support the students.