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Young scientists rise to the Challenge

April 05, 2006

pearson Flood.jpgTeams of Year 10 students from throughout the New England region pitted their scientific wits against each other today in the fourth annual Armidale Science and Engineering Challenge.

More than 200 students from schools in Armidale, Inverell, Tenterfield, Walcha and Uralla took part in today’s Challenge, which was hosted (as in previous years) by The University of New England. They responded to the challenge with great enthusiasm, becoming engrossed in activities that included building and flying an airship, solving a maze problem, and building a chair.

Altogether, more than 10,000 students from eastern and southern Australia will compete in regional Challenge events over the coming weeks.

For the third successive year, a team from The Armidale School (TAS) emerged the winner of the Armidale Challenge. The TAS team will travel to Newcastle in August to compete with other regional winners in the Super Challenge Series. (The University of Newcastle coordinates the Science and Engineering Challenge nationally.) The runner-up at UNE today was PLC Armidale.

Sponsored by UNE, Engineers Australia, Young Engineers Australia and Armidale Central Rotary Club, the Armidale Challenge is organised by a committee chaired by the Rotary Club’s David Steller. About 25 people, including UNE lecturers, technical officers, postgraduate students and science-teaching students, as well as Rotary members, guided the teams through the activities in UNE’s Lazenby Hall.

At the end of the day Dr Sarah Pearson, a UNE physicist, congratulated all the participants for “giving it a go, keeping going, and being creative”. “You did that,” Dr Pearson said, “and so you are all scientists. We look forward to meeting you again in the world of science – the last frontier.”

The Executive Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Sciences, Professor Margaret Sedgley, presented the winner’s trophy to a representative of the team from TAS, and Mr Steller presented participation awards to each team.

The photograph displayed here shows UNE physicist Dr Sarah Pearson and the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) of UNE, Professor Peter Flood, surveying the excitement in Lazenby Hall.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at April 5, 2006 04:32 PM