STEAM Rotary Club Competition 

The Rotary Club of Somerville Tyabb hosts an annual competition for Year 5 & Year 6 students, to encourage interest in engineering and science. 

Baxter PS students were offered the opportunity to participate in this annual Rotary ISAC STEM competition. This year’s challenge was to construct a paper card tower using tape, Blu-Tack and staples. The towers were attached to a wooden board. We held tryouts at school with the two most successful teams, 'Shrek Taco Babies' and 'Giraffes', selected to represent Baxter PS.

On Thursday 7th August, our two teams journeyed to Blue Scope in Hastings to compete against 10 local primary schools. The teams were given an hour to complete their constructions before being judged. 

The first target was to achieve 60 centimetres in height. Successful teams had their tower placed in front of an industrial fan to test its strength. All towers that survived where then judged for total height achieved, construction skills and teamwork. 

The day started well with 'Shrek Taco Babies' winning a bag of lollies as the prize for most creative name. Both teams built towers well above 1 metre that survived the fan. Unfortunately, the 'Shrek Taco Babies’ tower collapsed while waiting to be measured for official height. However, 'Giraffes’ 114 centimetre tower remained standing and were judged the winners. 

These students received a plaque, certificates and $300 dollars prize money for the school. This prize money will go back into the STEAM program to invest in new equipment, hopefully in the area of robotics.

Congratulations to our WINNERS!!!! Grayson, Jayden, Linkin & Veyron.

Special thanks to Matt Hardy for organising this fabulous event for our students. Also to both Kirsten and Matt Hardy for transporting our competitors to Hastings, on the day.