‘High School Challenge’ doubles in size

24 Jun 2008 | Bernie Goldie

The second ‘High School Challenge’ – being held at the University of Wollongong tomorrow Wednesday 25 June and Thursday 26 June – has expanded so quickly that it will now be held over two days with more than 400 students from 13 schools participating.

The inaugural event was held in November last year drawing 224 students for the day’s activities but the Illawarra and South East Challenge will now settle into its permanent annual timeslot of June. This year schools from the Illawarra, Southern Sydney, Nowra and the Southern Highlands are competing.

The aim of the event is to encourage more students to undertake science and mathematics in high schools and organisers are particularly pleased to see two all girls’ schools competing from tomorrow – Wollongong’s St Mary’s Star of the Sea and Frensham from Mittagong.

“We need to address the critical shortage of scientists and engineers in Australia and events like this challenge will help boost numbers emerging from schools into these fields,” according to the Regional Chair of the Illawarra and South East Challenge Co-ordinating Committee, Professor Fazel Naghdy, of UOW’s Faculty of Informatics. This year three faculties from UOW are assisting in running the challenge event – Informatics, Engineering and Science.

The Rotary Club of Wollongong and UOW are providing all the volunteer supervisors on the day. The Challenge is run in conjunction with Engineers Australia and the University of Newcastle’s Faculty of Science and Information Technology and its Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment.

Professor Naghdy said that the Challenge was a lot of fun for the students who participate and provides them with an insight into the working world of science and engineering.

The local co-ordinator of the Challenge, Dr Zengxi (Stephen) Pan, said the students would be allocated one or two tasks for the day and they are assessed as to how well they complete these tasks and compete with students from other schools. The tasks may include building and flying an airship, solving a mystery maze or building a chair for a three kilogram doll.

Dr Pan said that the Challenge represented a unique opportunity for young people in our community.

“The hands-on competitive nature of the Challenge allows students to experience the creative side of science and engineering in a fun atmosphere. It is aimed mainly at Year 10 students but schools are welcome to include younger children to make up teams.

The winning team is expected to be announced at about 3pm each day. Media wishing to learn the results should contact Dr Pan on 4221 5498 or Mr Stephen Petrou on 4221 3417. A trophy will be presented to the winning team.

This year’s Challenge is sponsored by CSC GIS Global Solutions and Technology, Tyree Industries, BlueScope Steel and the Roads and Traffic Authority.

MEDIA PLEASE NOTE

Among those attending the official opening will be UOW’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, the President of Wollongong Rotary Club, Mr Malcolm Heard and Mr Peter Charker, also from Rotary.

Opening time and venue: 9.50am in the University Hall, University of Wollongong.

Available visuals for the event: A DVD (suitable for TV news reproduction) is available showing how some of the finished projects should look. The students’ work can best be viewed between 3pm to 3.30pm on each day of the event

For further information contact either: Professor Fazel Naghdy on 4221 3403; Dr Zengxi (Stephen) Pan on 4221 5498 or 0433 799 324; Mr Stephen Petrou on 4221 3417; or Shannon Svensen on 4221 4500 from the University of Wollongong; or Mr Peter Charker representing Rotary on 4227 7 071.

Challenge Website: http://www.elec.uow.edu.au/challenge/Overview.php