West Coast Science Educators ran a science challenge day.

All students in year 9 and 10 took part in a Science Fun Challenge day at school two weeks ago. The challenge was to create a device from a newspaper, sellotape and some plastic that would lift a 1kg object up 4 metres. From this challenge, the staff selected the fastest teams to take part in the West Coast Science Educators, Science Fun Challenge day held in the Events Centre in Greymouth. 

 The event this year was focused on challenges that teams may face in the event of an earthquake or other catastrophic events. Four teams were selected and they competed in a mystery challenge revealed to them when they arrived. With four teams representing Westland High School, we came up with some very creative solutions and gave it the very best effort in the Science Quiz. 

 The challenge involved building an emergency stretcher from a newspaper string, sellotape in one hour. The stretcher had to hold 8kg (baby), and for a newspaper stretcher, this is a particularly hard puzzle to solve. 

 We came up against some pretty stiff competition with more than 40 teams from all over the West Coast entered in the event this year. It was a great time and a big shout out to Hamish Miller and Cody Dando who were very close to bringing the baby home when a small tear in the classifieds caused a disaster to end our chances of a quick run. Connor and Adolfo couldn’t keep a handle on their stretcher while Poppy and Rhiannon just kept dropping the load.  Well done to Bless and Shyana who did show us how it was done.