MORE than 250 Year 10 students from across the Central West came together for a meeting of the minds on Thursday as Charles Sturt University hosted the Science and Engineering Challenge for the first time.
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Among the budding scientists at the university’s Bathurst campus were students from Orange Christian School, Canobolas Rural Technology High School, Orange High School and James Sheahan Catholic High School.
The University of Newcastle has run the nationwide contest for 17 years but links with regional partners to host local events.
Teams worked on a challenge that required them to deliver the most cost-efficient electricity network by balancing cost and reliability factors while others were designing an artificial hand.
There was also a bridge-building challenge, a catapult exercise, a public transport network activity and even a mission to Mars.
The CSU School of Engineering is only in its second year and Professor of Engineering Euan Lindsay said it was a good fit to host a Central West round of the challenge.
He said the day was all about making a career in engineering a viable option for students.
“This competition encourages our brightest prospective brains in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to pit their abilities against themselves, the clock and each other in a series of challenging activities that run all day,” Professor Lindsay said.
“It encourages high school students to follow their STEM passions by providing real-world problems to hone their skills. We show them that STEM underpins our modern society.”
Challenge director Terry Burns from the University of Newcastle said the exercises were designed to get teams applying STEM thinking without even realising it.
“The aim is that we want kids to consider a career in STEM because it is already being predicted that three-quarters of the jobs in the future will have a STEM focus,” he said.
State and national finals will be held later in the year.