Epro8 Canterbury Competition

 Epro8 Competition

The EPro8 Challenge is an engineering and problem solving competition.  Every year over 10,000 students from 800 schools from throughout New Zealand take part.

In Term 3 we put together 3 Epro8 teams: 

• Rooms 15/16 The St Albans GONKS: Gus, Harry, Neave and Henry 

• Rooms 17/18 The Big Brain Bunch: Dylan, Ben, Zeke and Jamie 

• Rooms 20/21 The Nickin McChuggets  Sarah, Ruben, Harry and Leo  

Preparation: During term 2 the teams came together to practice developing their STEM skills with our newly purchased STEM kits. During this time the teams were also developing their ability to work well as a team in preparation for the Term 3 Regional Challenge. 

Challenge: Due to Covid 19 this year the competition was held at school and entries were videoed and sent in for judging along with a 1 page report. Each team was challenged to create a robotic creature for the ‘Mayors new zoo’ all the while ensuring they met the challenge guidelines and rules! 

Congratulations to all 3 teams who created 3 amazing creatures:

Jamal the Owl, Flumo the Octopus and Crocomotor the Crocodile.

A BIG Congratulations to all our teams for their wonderful creations. An extra congratulations to the two St Albans teams who have qualified for the Canterbury semi- finals: The St Albans Gonks who created Flumo the Octopus and The Big Brain Brunch who created Jamal the Owl. The semi finals will be held at Kaiapoi North School on Tuesday 1st September: 9.30-12.30pm. Good luck to both our teams.

Meet the St Albans Epro8 teams for 2020

The EPro8 Challenge is a competition, an engineering and problem solving race. 

Every year over 10,000 students from 900 schools from throughout New Zealand

take part. Next term St Albans have 3 teams entered representing the 3 year  ⅚ hubs.

Rms 15/16 Team 1 : Harry, Gus, Henry, Neave 

Rms 17/18 Team 2: Jaime, Zeke, Dylan, Ben 

Rms 20/21 Team 3: Harry, Ruben, Leo, Sarah

These teams will have a week to complete their challenges. 

Teams compete to:
build large sized structures
solve practical problems
engineer using pulleys, motors, gears, wheels and axles
invent machines that can complete simple tasks
undertake unusual and fun experiments.
construct basic electronic circuits.
solve interesting problems using practical maths

Teams at work practicing challenges. 

Supporting gifted students during the lockdown

Dear Families,

As we enter the third week of the lockdown we embark on the next phase of  -  online
home learning. The lockdown can be challenging for gifted children as they may
exhibit increased anxiety, sadness, intense feelings, and out-of-the ordinary behaviour.
This may be the case for children also not identified as gifted. Please click on the tips
(link below) if you would like to get some tips to support your child during this lockdown.
This has been developed by the NZ Association for Gifted Children. The link below also
includes how you can support your child at different developmental stages. 

The National Association for Gifted Children (USA) has also developed  a tip sheet for supporting your gifted child during Covid-19.(Please click  on this link to open) We hope this message finds you feeling well and safe in your bubbles.

Celebrating excellence in Mandarin

Last week 17 children were selected to receive a prize for demonstrating excellent
learning in Mandarin from St Albans School. The Chinese Prize Giving was held
at St Margarets College. The evening included the presentation of certificates from
primary to tertiary level, a Chinese folk song, a Chinese dance and a demonstration
of Kung Fu. We have been very fortunate this year to have the wonderful tuition from
Qihang who has taught whole classes and extension groups across the school from

Years 2-6. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Chinese culture
and their language. We would just like to take this opportunity to thank Qihang for all
her expertise and hard work in providing our tamariki with wonderful engaging lessons. Congratulations to the children who were awarded certificates: Pictured from left front:
Matilda, Hannah,Isabel, Eliza, Cameron, Viktor

Middle: Clark, Digby,  Evan, Josh, Leo, Sam

Back row: Qihang, Emma, Fiona, Angie, Bell

Absent: Angel

Tournament of Minds

Last weekend our Tournament of Minds Team (TOM) competed in the
2019 Regional Competition. TOM offers teams of students the opportunity
to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent
thinking while developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and
teamwork. Teams are required to work together on a long term challenge for
six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents and peers. They are
encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour
to produce a creative and original way to communicate their solution to others.
On competition day they also participate in a Spontaneous Challenge which
requires quick, creative thinking skills. Throughout their long term challenge our
St Albans teams showed amazing teamwork producing 2 quality performances.
Kāhu North team performed 'A Kiwi Quest' winning 1st place and Kāhu South
team performed 'The Wizard of Aus' winning 2nd place honours. We are so very
proud of all the hard work these two teams have put into planning, preparation and
developing polished performances.

Robo-Cup 2019

Robocup 2019

Last Saturday two St Albans teams competed at the Robocup competition.
Our teams have spent weeks under the expert tuition of Sam Pelham, designing,
building and coding their robots to meet the criteria of the competition. The Rescue
team competed in 4 rounds which included 4 different courses.  After 2 rounds it
was a quick return to the pits to make adjustments for the final 2 rounds. The Soccer
team had two robots- a player and a goalie. They competed against an Intermediate
team playing 3 games in total. Final result 2-1 to the opposition. A BIG congratulations
to both our teams for developing awesome robots, clever codes and being awesome
competitors.

Robocup Soccer team from left: Kody, Sam, Harry,Sam Y,Emily, Sam G (Absent Joe)

                                            

Robocup Rescue team from left: Lachlan, Luci, Nate Kody, Lachlan, Neave

                             

T     

Epro8 Challenge

Congratulations to our 2 St Albans teams who competed in the Epro8

Challenge this week. From left: 
The St Albans Circuits: Jinudhi, Charlie, Sophie and Ben

The St Albans Circuits: Lachlan, Bella, Harry and Stella

Both teams finished a very credible 5th equal competing against tough
competition and solving tricky challenges. They made St Albans proud by
competing in the spirit of the competition, showing excellent teamwork and
problem solving skills. A BIG thank you to our parent helpers and supporters.

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