St Michael’s College hosts the area heat of the Sentinus K’NEX Primary School Challenge
Above: Runners up from Enniskillen Model are Charlie Potts and Iain Fleming, the Adjudicator Mr Tom Keane and the winners from St Mary’s Mullymesker are Eamon Greene and Keilan Dolan
St. Michael's was delighted to host the Sentinus K’NEX Primary School Challenge area heat on Thursday 9th March. 10 schools from the local area took part in the area heat. The K’NEX challenge is a design and build problem-solving activity, for teams of two P6/P7 pupils. Each team was given a K’Nex construction kit and asked to complete a design and build challenge.
Once the heat got underway the talents and ability of the pupils came clearly to the fore. They had two hours to design and build their own construction. The focus from the pupils was most impressive and at times it was hard to believe that there were 48 pupils in the hall such was the concentration of the pupils on the task. All of the participating pupils and teachers really enjoyed the occasion, which is the essence of the competition. At the end, the adjudicator, Tom Keane, made a very difficult decision. He awarded the first place to Eamon Greene and Keilan Dolan from St Mary’s, Mullymesker and the second place to Charlie Potts and Iain Fleming from Enniskillen Model. Afterwards the adjudicator rang from Belfast to inform us that, due to the outstanding quality shown in this heat, he has awarded a third place to a team from Holy Trinity as joint runners-up with Enniskillen Model. Now all three local teams will go to the finals on Monday 12th June 2017 as part of The Big Bang Fair at Sentinus Young Innovators in Ulster University, Jordanstown.
St Michael’s would like to congratulate all of the schools, and especially the pupils, for their participation and wish the winners well as they go on to represent our area in the Final in June.