Mount Girls Win Rotary Design Awards

Two teams of four Mount girls won gold and bronze in a distinguished regional design challenge.

Alicia, Joanna, Orlaith and Nicole took gold in the Intermediate divison of the York Rotary Technology Tournament.  Antonia, Benyapa, Clare and Holly won the Bronze award for the Foundation division.

Their challenge was to design and build a Launcher to fire a Space Capsule, containing meterological instruments, into the stratosphere. The Foundation group had to be able to fire their capsule through a hoop, and the Intermediate challenge was to shoot the capsule at least 10 metres into the air and deploy the parachute. Seventeen teams took part in the Foundation division and eleven took competed in the Intermediate challenge.

Head of Design Technology, Rachel Milton, who accompanied the teams to the event, said, “The girls were praised for their fantastic portfolios showing clarity of thought, innovative design, problem solving skills, and creating a carefully constructed device that projected a ping pong ball with a high degree of accuracy.”

Adrienne Richmond, Principal, said, “Our heartiest congratulations to the girls for their excellent achievement. The Mount has a well-earned reputation for STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) education. The girls’ work in the Rotary Technology challenge is a perfect example of how turning STEM into STEAM; incorporating the Arts for creating end products that are technologically superior as well as being aesthetically pleasing and practical.”