Everything from bionic hands to miniature cities was brought to life at the University of Tasmania on Thursday as high school students took part in the 2018 Science and Engineering Challenge.
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An initiative of the University of Newcastle, the Science and Engineering Challenge is a national outreach program designed to showcase the different disciplines of STEM.
More than 500 students from 15 schools in the region competed for the chance to progress to next week’s state finals.
There were eight different components to the challenge, with participating schools assigning a team of students from grades 9 and 10 to each activity.
One of the tasks on the day consisted of building a bionic hand from straws, tape and part of a PVC pipe, and then using it to pick up items and perform sign language.
For Launceston Christian School student Sarah Park and her teammates, not everything went according to plan.
“One of our fingers broke when we tried to pick something up,” she said.
“We did better in the other part of the competition, where we had to provide power to different parts of a miniature grid.”
The Tasmanian state finals of the Science and Engineering Challenge will be held at UTAS on Tuesday, June 5.
Tasmanian state coordinator Susie Haley said the activities reflected parts of science and engineering the students may not have been aware of.
“We want to show that science and engineering involve creativity, innovation, problem solving and teamwork,” she said.
