From the 26th - 28th of April 2017, Riccarton High School was one of ten schools invited to the event that featured a lot of cool and awesome things such as building simple engines that demonstrates combustion, making a custom flywheel so a crankshaft rotates more smoothly, going on field trips to see real engineers at work, and so much more!

During the three days, we definitely had a lot of fun. It is definitely an event worth go to for anyone who is interested in mechanical engineering. Last but not least, this event had been completely funded by sponsors of this event so was free for the students that attended!

Students: Jade McConnell (9LC), Miriam Mcfie (9LC), Catherine Marshall (9LC), Mackay Wakefield (9RD), Callum Wakefield (9RD) and Evan Ting (9LC).

Teachers: Mr Baars, Mr Paewai and Ms Trott

Our first day:

We were all pretty nervous, mainly because it is our first time going to University of Canterbury. As we went in, we had to do a roll call and were given a name tag that had a specific number that came with our name tag.

We were then split into people who had odd numbers and people who had even numbers. The 'odd numbers' went to make flywheels and Stirling engines while the 'even numbers' made 3D printed models. 

It was a day we would never forget and knowing that we still had two more days, we were all very excited as the second day arrived.

Our second day:

As usual, we came to the Engineering Core Complex and did a roll call for the day. Although this time, we were switched into a different rotation: the ‘odd numbers’ made 3D printed models while the ‘even numbers’ made flywheels and built Stirling engines. 

During lunch, we were all invited into a creative aeroplane design challenge that required us to be in groups of fours. The challenge was to build something that would fly and land the closest to a miniature 3D printed building that was about five metres away. If your group’s aeroplane hit the building however, you are disqualified from the competition. There were three groups of RHS students.

This was a competition that all of us really enjoyed doing and competing in. Just like that, another day at University of Canterbury came to an end.

Our third and last day:

Today’s programme was vastly different than the programme we had two days before. Instead of being separated into the ‘odd numbers’ and the ‘even numbers’, we were split into group A, B and C.

To be honest, it didn’t matter whether we were group A, B or C because everyone got to visit the same engineering complexes. The only difference between the groups was that when we had to take a bus to go for a field trip to see real engineers working in the community, the three groups visited different places.

This took just about half a day. For the rest of the three hours we had left, we were now getting prepared for the prize giving - the event that everyone has been waiting for. During this time, we made final adjustments to our ‘Sterling engines’ and we were also collecting our 3D printed models from the 3D printer, so that we could present our creations to the parents when it’s prize giving time.

Prize Giving 

RHS claimed four of the six prizes that were given out, making us unofficially the best performing school. Three RHS students won the aeroplane competition, and one won the best Stirling engine. As the prizegiving ended, it was a very sad moment for all of us as we had thoroughly enjoyed this event.

Congratulations to:

Miriam McFie (9LC) – Initiative in Stirling Engine Work (This was building the Stirling Engine).

Evan Ting - Aeroplane Challenge Winner

Mackay Wakefield - Aeroplane Challenge Winner

Jade McConnell - Aeroplane Challenge Winner

Note:

During this time, we also got to experience the virtual reality system and also how to 3D scan an object.