Students engineer a win

A group of teenagers who won an engineering challenge with little preparation are surprised but proud at the win.

Birkenhead College students Josh Jeffers, Josh Skulve, Connor Ward and Dagmara Rudolph won the Auckland regional Vector ePro8 Challenge.

The team of year 10 students was given three hours to complete a series of engineering challenges, gaining points for project milestones.

Jeffers said the group was approached to compete in the North Shore heats by their science teacher.

‘‘We opened the book and we panicked,’’ Jeffers said.

In the North Shore challenge, they had to build a bridge and a mechanical dog.

Then in the regional challenge they created a wind-powered crane and pinball machine.

The group beat nine North Shore and Northland schools in the first heats then 11 other teams to win the Auckland challenge.

Skulve said the group worked better together in the second heats.

‘‘We weren’t panicking as much as the first challenge,’’ he said.

‘‘We were all doing different parts of the entire contraption. It came together very quickly.’’

Skulve said he had pride in the team for coming out on top and hoped there would be similar challenges in the future.

He said he liked the problemsolving aspect of engineering.

‘‘We have to put in a serious amount of thought and have group input,’’ Skulve said.

‘‘We opened the book and we panicked.’’

Josh Jeffers