Two Port Macquarie secondary schools are focused on creating a new tomorrow by equipping young people with the skills and capabilities they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hastings Secondary College and St Columba Anglican School students travelled to Sydney in July for the annual Duel Down Under robotics competition held at Macquarie University.
Port Macquarie was the only regional area to have two competing teams.
The event saw teams of secondary school students from around Australia compete against each other over three days.
Attended by hundreds of fans, families, educators and industry leaders, the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition honours design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship, gracious professionalism and high impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.
Hastings Secondary College, Team 6508, known as Hastings Heroes, has proven to be one of the most competitive teams over the last two years and St Columba Anglican School, Team 9555, known as ‘Iona Fusion’, were first-time entrants.
After two days of competition, both schools achieved top five finishes and were deemed Alliance Captains, resulting in both schools being able to invite three other robots to join their teams.
During competition, both teams seriously turned heads and were able to match their skills with the best students from across Australia.
Hastings Heroes team ranked second entering the Finals. At the conclusion of the intense competition, they were recognised with the Connected Community Award.
This award is given to the team that shows exemplary involvement in their local community activities, such as sharing their work with primary schools in the area and helping develop and mentor a significant number of First Lego League teams.
They are working on building STEM skills of our future learners, said Hastings Secondary College head teacher Paul King.
“The team has been demonstrating their robot in the community and are excited to announce their recent partnership with local Engineering firm Bale Engineering,” he said.
"The partnership is all about creating opportunities for team members and other students to get a feel for real STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths) careers."
St Columba Anglican School's technology faculty coordinator Justin Munro said the design, engineering, computer coding and building abilities of students involved is a credit and highlights the STEAM initiatives and skill development of students in our local area.
"Iona Fusion’s alliance team were the overall winners of this competition," he said.
"They were also successful in achieving the award for Engineering Excellence in Robot Design. This award is given to the team which demonstrated strong principles of design, with a special mention of the computer-aided design and manufacturing used to produce their robot.”
The two teachers congratulated all of the teams who competed, as each one of them demonstrated excellent teamwork, professionalism and strategic thinking in rising to the competition’s challenges.
“These students are engaged, excited, passionate and creative," the two teacher said.
"They come from all walks of life and yet find a commonality in exploring and engaging in STEAM.
"This program gives every student a chance to explore all that they can be and develop the type of skills that will be critical to Australia’s future. We can’t wait to see what they do next.”
