Five coding superstars from Hastings Secondary College are riding high after taking out third place in the National First Lego League Competition.
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In their rookie year, Shaynae Murray, Kelsie Coad, Vianne Bachelor, Jorga Schofield and Natalie Barratt competed at the regional final on November 20, then the State Championships on November 24 and on December 8-9 the team came away with awards at the National Final.
The girls are also part of the robotics team at Hastings Secondary College but said they really wanted to show that an all girls group could go the distance against teams from all over the country.
Jorga Schofield said the lego competition was a lot different to the robotics competitions they have been to but they all loved the new challenge.
“We are all really great friends from robotics and so we really wanted to try something different and do something as a girls only team,” Jorga said.
“There are four parts to the First Lego League Competition; core values, the project, code and design so we really had to think about how we were going to go about the competition but we all had a lot of fun.
“For our project we put ourselves in the year 3000 and designed a robot that could pick up space junk and then we made a 3D printed model of it.”
The team are a colourful bunch of girls who say kindness and fun are necessary pieces of the puzzle that helped them get to the top.
They have also been mentoring students from primary schools in the area including going to Tacking Point Public, Port Macquarie Primary, Telegraph Point Primary, Hastings Public and Lake Cathie Public School to help students.
“We had a little dance we did at the competitions which everyone loved and as part of the team we are going into primary schools and teaching them about coding,” Jorga said.
“We are all really passionate about showing the younger kids and especially girls that it is okay to like robots and coding and just because it might look like a boys thing, girls can do it all as well.
“We are all really proud when girls come up to us and say they want to do what we do because girls are just as good as boys and we are proving that.
“In our robotics team we have lots of girls and boys in the team and we all play a role and we all think little kids should know that as well.
“The field of engineering needs to have more girls and we are showing that it is possible and all having a lot of fun doing it.”
Jorga said the group really bonded over the project and everyone played their own parts to ensure the team was able to achieve their goals.
“We made special uniforms in different colours but all the same design to show that we are all one team but each have a different really important role in the team,” she said.
“We came third in the entire country for team work and we were all really stoked because we all have our strengths and this competition really showed that.”
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