Science Challenge builds skills for future careers

Teams of students from five local high schools went head-to-head last Thursday putting their critical thinking, teamwork, and creative skills to the test in the Science and Engineering Challenge.

Presented by the University of Newcastle in partnership with the Rotary Club of Orange North, the Science and Engineering Challenge (SEC) is a national STEM outreach program that hopes to inspire more young people to take up a career in science and engineering.

The full-day competition that ran on Thursday, May 5 saw teams of up to four students in Year 9 and Year 10 undertake a range of challenges in the James Sheahan Catholic High School Hall. These challenges included: creating model bridges, robotic arms, water turbines, electrical circuits, and suspension systems.

“It is a STEM-based competition where [the students] are testing their skills in a variety of different areas,” Jan Mendham, who has run the competition at James Sheahan for a number of years and is currently working in the Diocesan Office as an Education Officer, explained. 

Each of the real-world scenarios has set criteria for teams to earn points for their school, she added.

“The students are awarded points on their design and execution of the item — whatever they are constructing and, at the end of the day, we will have a winning team and that winning team, based on their scores, may get the opportunity to go onto State and then further on, to Nationals,” she said excitedly..

While acting in a facilitating role at last week’s event, Jan would normally have a team of her own students in the competition. 

“I had a team make Nationals in 2014, so I'm pretty passionate about it,” Jan, who believes the competition develops important skills for life, said.

“Teamwork and their critical thinking skills are more important than anything content-based at this level,” she said.

“These soft skills that we look at, are really critical for the kids that are going into careers that… we don't know what they are at the moment. The advantage of being able to work in a team is something that's undervalued, I believe, in the school system and we need to get in and build that.

“Activities like this and robotics competitions, this is where I think we are going to get in and shine,” Jan concluded.

James Sheehan came out on top of the points ladder at the end of this year’s challenge.