Girl Power takes Northpower EPro8 Challenge titles
Published 19 March 2021
In the Year 7-8 Northpower EPro8 Challenge final, Kamo Intermediate’s ‘Kamo Thinkersplus’ team came first, Whangarei Intermediate’s ‘Brown Kiwis’ came second and Kamo Intermediate’s ‘Kamo Tribe’ was third.
In the year 5-6 Northpower EPro8 Challenge Final, Waipu School’s ‘4-Wheel’ sailed home in first, Parua Bay School’s ‘Jimbob Tribe’ were second and ‘Team Omega’ from Tautoro School were third.
Two all-girl teams have been crowned Northpower EPro8 Challenge champions for 2021.
In the first of two exciting finals at Whangarei Intermediate this week, a Kamo Intermediate team performed impressively to win the Year 7-8 final and Waipu Primary the Year 5-6 final with a 50 point winning margin for designing and building a yacht.
Waipu’s all-girl team of Ava Mewett, Daisy Winters, Harper Scrymgeour and Paige Tomes were supported by Deputy Principal Jordan McDonald who aptly shouted them lunch at McDonald’s following the win.
They had asked for McDonald’s the previous week after they won the heat and I told them not until they had won the final. They did really well,” says Mr McDonald.
The popular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) competition has been the biggest in Northland yet with hundreds of students making up 77 teams from 26 Northland schools over two weeks of heats and finals.
Andre Thiele, the Northland EPro8 event organiser, was thrilled at the growing success of the Northland event.
What I love in Northland is that there is such a positive vibe from the students, teachers and parents. And now we have Northland secondary schools wanting to get involved in 2022 so we look forward to being back in Dargaville and Whangarei for the next Northpower EPro8 Challenge,” he says.
Northpower Network General Manager Josie Boyd says the 2021 events were particularly special.
We had over 300 students take part this year so it is our biggest event yet and to see the excitement on their faces is awesome,” says Mrs Boyd.
“They challenged themselves, worked well together, had a lot of fun and learnt lots. We look forward to making the 2022 Northpower EPro8 challenge even bigger and better to inspire more students to continue studying Science, Mathematics, Science and Technology, which can lead on to a range of exciting career options.”
