Recently, Whitefriars took place in an interschool Science and Engineering competition at Geelong, where many Year 9 and 10 kids were extended and exposed to all kinds of engineering challenges in a super fun and engaging way.

Everyone from Whitefriars all got into groups of four and chose a colour, which corresponded to the activities they would be competing in on the day. These events ranged from the groups working together to design, construct, and guide a Mars rover across a set path, to an activity where they constructed their own coded language and would send messages to each other. The activity my group took part in was the Bridge building, where our engineering skills were put to the test when we had to build a bridge out of nothing but masking tape, cardboard, popsicle sticks, and flimsy balsa wood, and had to support as much weight as possible. To our surprise, we managed to hold the maximum weight of 9kg with our bridge that only weighed 86g, holding over 100x its own weight! Thanks to everyone’s diligent effort, Whitefriars managed to beat the other five schools, winning the whole competition! This was an awesome event and I can’t wait for next year’s competition!

Josh Lyons

Middle Years Captain, Year 9