Vector EPro8

Hi everyone. I am back!

On Friday, 4 students from the senior syndicate went to the Vector EPro8 Challenge. A few weeks ago, Miss Daly picked 4 students to go to the EPro8 challenge. The EPro8 challenge is an engineering challenge where you have to make things like a structure 2.5m tall or make a motorised police car. The 4 students that Miss Daly chose were Toby, Noah, Angelina and me! To practise, we had to go on a simulator online that Miss Daly had sent us. It had an online version of what we would be doing at the challenge. We also had to come up with a team name. We made the team name Waikowhai Code4 because there was 4 people in our team.

Finally, the day came. We were dressed up in our Waikowhai jackets and ready to leave. When we got there, the judge explained how everything worked, and then he told us how to earn points...

"These are the challenge cards." He held up a blue folder and which showed challenges inside. "These are the challenges. You can do a rat wheel, a lightning rod, a motorised car, an elevator or measuring the distances of a ball pit. Though, if you let me pick your challenge you can get an extra 30 points. You can also get points from a tidy workspace. Now, decide what you want to do and then go to your station, read the criteria of your challenge and start building when I say." 

Waikowhai Code4 decided what they wanted to do. We let the judge decide what we wanted to do. How he picked was he gave us an orange ball. We unscrewed it and inside it read 'Rat Wheel'. This meant we were to build the rat wheel. "Go!" yelled the judge. There was many hard challenges such as making it spin while a light goes on. Most of the time on the clock it said that our team was in 1st. Yes! We were winning!

Finally, it was 20 minutes until the challenge was over. The judge rushed over to us. "Okay, guys." he said. "Your last challenge takes and average of 20 minutes. You have to make a motorized vehicle that turns make the rat wheel spin without touching it. So, I suggest you get moving." 

So, we got going. By the the time we figured out what we were doing, there was 2 minutes left to go. The judge rushed up to us again. "OK team. You don't have enough time to complete this challenge. Do another challenge and attach it to this and then give me a good reason to not take down the rat wheel."

"OK" we all replied and then got to work. We looked at the challenge cards. "We can build a thunder rod on top of our rat wheel." said Toby. Everyone agreed and we got to work. It had to be 2.5 metres tall. The countdown was on. 5....4....3....2....1! "Everyone, stop what you are doing. If you have hit your buzzer then sit down and wait for me to come and check it otherwise pack up." the judge said. We sat down. He came to check us first. "OK this is good. Yep, 2.5 metres tall. Now, why did you need to keep the rat wheel." Uh, oh. We hadn't thought about that. Luckily, Noah came up with a brilliant reason. "Um, we need the lightning rod to give electricity to the rat wheel." said Noah. "Oh, OK, I like that idea. OK, 30 points for you." "Yes!!!" we all yelled.

Then it was time for the results. "OK guys, you all did really well." the judge said. "OK, so it look like 4th place was pretty close but these are 3 teams that will go to the semi-finals. In third place is....Waikowhai Code4. 'Yes! We were into the semi-finals!' We went up to collect out certificates. "In second place is....Dancing Dolphins. And in first place, who will win the trophy is....Gladstone Gearheads!" Gladstone Gearheads came up to collect their certificates. They all looked so happy. The judge asked up everyone could help load their workspace into the van. So, we did. Finally, we went back to school as semi-finalists. The semi-finals were in November and we were so excited...

Here are some photos of the day:

Thank you for reading my blog post. I hope you enjoyed it. Blog you later!