Last Thursday 02 and Friday 03 June we took eight teams to the 2022 Epro8 Challenge Inter-School Event held at Bethlehem College. These events are designed to promote science and engineering, where students are challenged to build large scale constructions, build simple electronic circuits to control parts of their constructions and solve practical problems using Maths. It was absolutely fantastic to see such a huge increase in interest in this competition from three teams last year. The teams have been practicing on a weekly basis at school, but no amount of preparation could prepare them for the buzz and academic challenge of the competition.

Thursday night was the Year 11-13 competition, with 10 other teams entered from ACG, Katikati College, Tauranga Boys' College and Bethlehem College. The teams had 2.5 hours to complete as many engineering challenges as possible, including a vending machine, road-marking robot, a motorised magic show and a motorised system to get lazy “Uncle Albert” out of bed. Both senior teams, Crazy Smart Asians and Milk and Cookies competed well, showing strong communication and problem-solving skills as well as resilience, determination and a sense of humour. Our returning 2021 Champions Crazy Smart Asians competed well but were pipped at the post, coming in a close second. This team will be continuing into the Grand Final to be held on 30 June. The team consisted of Jin Lee, Erina Islam, Gayathri Dinesh and Arabella McDonald.

On Friday there were two heats for the Year 9-10 competition, and Tauranga Girls’ College was exceptionally proud to have a strong presence with six teams entered. Once again we competed against local Bay of Plenty schools and it was a fierce battle, with each team showing great thinking and problem-solving abilities and developing confidence throughout the competition. Many of these students were thrown in the deep end, so to speak, competing in the EPro8 Challenge for the first time. The Turtles placed 3rd and will be going on to the semi finals on the 29 June. The team consisted of Savanna Singh, Steph McEachen, Ella Ensor, and Maia Sanger.

We’d like to thank the parents who came along to support their young people and the Board of Trustees for their support in purchasing the practice kits. A massive thank you to our sponsors who assisted us with the registration fees - Kirk Roberts Consulting, Beca and Stratum Engineering.