Epro8 Challenge Regional Finals

Jensen, Isaac, Max and Isabelle showed great stickability in the third and final level of the Epro8 Challenge competition on the last Thursday of term. They worked through a range of challenges around designing a windpowered Waka. Their boat had to meet certain dimensions and sails had to be measured accurately, using maths principles that were quite new for most of the teams in the room. I was very proud to see our team persevere as they grappled with new concepts and remade their sails to meet the criteria and earn extra points.

With a final showing of 8th equal, the team can be really pleased with their efforts. What a great Epro8 season our teams have had for 2021!

Drama Workshop 2

 Twenty Whakaaro students gave up a chunk of their teacher only day to join Janelle Pitout for our second Drama Workshop.  This was an opportunity for Janelle to help the students expand on the ideas explored in Workshop 1.  We had a lot of fun watching the "passing of time" scenarios that each group developed and the students were all able to offer meaningful feedback to each other.  Janelle commented that they were especially good at that and she would have liked to bottle it to share with her high school drama students in Auckland!

Drama Workshop 1

A busy week! Janelle Pitout from Kristen School in Auckland joined us for the first of two drama workshops.  Janelle has extensive experience on and off stage, both acting and directing.  She has even performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company on The Globe stage in London. She spent time with most of the Whakaaro students, as well as some new faces who were put forward to take up the opportunity. In the Wednesday workshops, she worked on physicality and character building as well as designing a story arc.

Tautoko and Haepapa

Kahurangi and the Navigator Centre

Epro8 Challenge Semi Finals Year 5 and 6

Our two year 5 and 6 teams had fun competing at last week's Epro8 Challenge Semi Finals. The teams centred most of their efforts around designing and building an art safe which was burglar proof. They incorporated electronic components to create features such as light sensors, motion sensors and alarms with hidden triggers.

When the clock ran down, Isabelle,  Isaac, Max and Jensen were safe in 2nd place, their place secured in the Grand Final.  For Beau, Ben, Jimmy and Josh a tough challenge was ahead. In a sudden death scenario,  our boys and another team had to link two switches up to two different components and a battery. Sadly our boys were pipped at the post and finished the competition in 4th equal but just missing out on a place in the Grand Final.

It was a fun morning of team building and engineering.  Both teams should be very proud of their efforts!