Science and Engineering Challenge Champions

St Mary’s College has taken out the title of the Darling Downs Science and Engineering Challenge champions.

Held at the University of Southern Queensland, eight schools from across the region gathered to participate in the challenge.

The event encouraged students to think outside the box and test theories. It was an event where getting something wrong was encouraged.

The students were provided a challenge and a set of materials to complete a specific task. The event aimed at allowing the students to engage in fun, yet competitive activities involving elements of science, engineering and technology, encouraging the students to explore scientific principles, rather than being guided to an answer.

St Mary’s College students, Tikiri Lamb and Jimmy Sullivan said the key to success was teamwork.

“Any team that wasn’t able to properly function within itself wasn’t going to be able to construct what was required of them in the limited amount of time,” said Tikiri.

“We had a leader, and we’d pass ideas through and vote on whether the idea was good. The key was communication,” said Jimmy.

The challenge is to encourage young high schoolers to continue their studies in the fields of science, technology, engineering or maths, or even inspire a career option.

“It’s certainly opened my mind to a lot of new possibilities,” said Tikiri Lamb.

Accumulating a score of 1299, the St Mary’s College team came away with the overall prize.