Camden Haven High School Year 9 students Ebony Nicholas and Beth Legge are passionate about maths, science and engineering.
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Their enthusiasm has seen them achieve an award for their entry in the 2017 Aurecon Bridge Building Competition.
Both Ebony and Beth are STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) students.
The students attended the competition at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney where they won the Efficiency Award for highest strength to weight ratio on August 1. There were 60 entries judged at the Art Gallery of NSW.
The students said a lot of planning and maths calculations went into the design of their bridge.
“We worked on it during lunches and at home,” Beth said.
There was a prior competition at Camden Haven High School where Beth and Ebony were selected to represent the school in Sydney for their design.
The girls worked to improve their design after the school competition before attending the state competition in Sydney.
“Our bridge that we made here at school wasn’t symmetrical but we changed it to make sure it was,” Beth said.
Ebony and Beth watched video footage of their bridge breaking in the school competition so that they could pin point what areas needed adjusting.
Across Australia the competition involved about 1000 Year 8 and Year 9 high school students and helped bring their ideas to life through encouraging them to develop their understanding of STEM by designing, then building a bridge and testing its strength.
The Aurecon Bridge Building Competition started 16 years ago. The competition was initiated to provide a fun and challenging environment for students to grow their skills in teamwork, creative thinking and innovation.