Two teams of four keen and enthusiastic students from 9BW went to Lower Hutt Town Hall recently to compete against other schools across the Wellington Region in this competition on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Students were accompanied by Ms Starsha Wright and Ms Kirsten Eichler.  There were three question rounds and three practical rounds in this year's event. 

Whilst our teams did not place, they put their hearts into the competition and did their best. Team 1 got 27 points and Team 2 got 25 points out of a possible 57 points.

Students involved were Riley B, Mackenzie D-P, Lucinda K, and Dannika W on Team 1 and Flynn K, Ethan R, Kaylee L, and Kayla H on Team 2. 

Team 1 enjoyed the music played during the question rounds, dancing to the beat in their seats. Team 2 was very dedicated to their focus. Music was selected to match the questions in a way appreciated by teachers and students alike.

The question rounds started with Putaiao (science), asking about what is considered room temperature, physics concepts, chemistry concepts, the water cycle, biology concepts, medical terminology, and Maori mythology. 

The second question round was Hangarau (technology) covering mac keyboard shortcuts, app symbols, what causes sound, computer knowledge, gaming knowledge (Roblox), electrical circuits, and text shortcuts. 

The final question round was Pāngarau (mathematics) with questions about the unit for sound intensity, fractions, magic number squares, algebra, area, mathematical riddles, percentages, and rates. 

This year for the Mahi ā-ringa (practical challenges) there were three different challenges. The first was a pendulum experiment with some maths calculations. 

The second challenge they had to identify where organs were on various species. In the final practical challenge students had to construct a rocking chair from a bag of bits. It needed to look like a rocking chair, rock without falling over, hold a golf ball, and rock without the ball falling off.
Whakautu (answers) for each question round were presented once each group had handed in their answer sheets so students could keep track of their scores in the question rounds.