Working+Towards+BP+Technology+Challenge+2013

The BP Challenge is an annual fun event held in regions throughout New Zealand between school teams. Teams are challenged to design and develop ‘solutions’ to problems using easily resourced materials, e.g., newspaper, string, sticky tape. The challenge provides an opportunity for people to demonstrate competencies such as • Thinking • Using language, text and symbols • Managing self • Relating to others • Participating and co-operating.

For four mornings 18 students from a number of Central Southland schools met with our tutor Mrs Leckie. We learnt to design and develop solutions to problems, in a team. We thought of ideas, shared them, built on knowledge we had and came up with plans that we implemented and adapted as needed. **Important tools we used were** Plan Co-operate – teamwork Discuss and compromise – combine ideas Build on ideas/knowledge – transfer knowledge Use the skills of team members Organise time Self management Build on feedback Be creative Be positive and have fun, support and encourage others in the group Learn **In the BP Challenge you can expect a challenge about** - moving an object across a construction e.g. bridges - moving an object down e.g. parachute - moving an object with your construction e.g. fishing rod - building towers - grabbing things over a distance

**Skills used for the BP Challenge include:** **Paper Rolling skills** • We started each day with paper rolling. We were looking for tight strong paper rolls as many of the BP Challenges use them. We found practice makes perfect. • Roll on the diagonal, tight as you can. Roll with hands up and out. • We trialled rolling 2 double sheets to see how long or strong we could get our rolls. We experimented with rolling one then the other, and with rolling both at the same time. We found no significant difference in strength, but it was faster doing two together.

**Teamwork** • The whole team has to contribute, otherwise you’ll never meet the time challenges. Each person can be doing something to help the team, using your strengths.

**Time management** • Keep yourself on task; manage yourself. • When you get the call telling you there’s 3 minutes left, you have to think what the top priorities are to finish up and meet the challenge. Then go fast as you can! Once you are being judged you can’t adapt anything.

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**Here are some of our reflections about participating in this GATE Initiative.** Naythan said, “I’ve learnt some skills to co-operate and it’s been good meeting other people.” Meg reflected, “I’ve learnt how to do different kinds of things to help my team win. The marble rolling challenge was really fun to take part in.” Andrew thought the marble run was fun, from thinking of the design and making it work, it was a fun challenge. Kendall said, “We’re getting better at paper rolling, you need it for creating lots of stuff, so it’s important to be good at it.” Sophie said, “I’ve been taught how to roll paper better. I’ve learnt some more skills to help my team complete our design. I’m good at getting things ready. The marble challenge was quite cool.” Lucy’s highlight has been learning different techniques to build things and different ways to work as a team. She said, “When we were doing the flagpole, some people were better at rolling and some people were better at building the structure.” Donrey said, “We can learn new stuff and invent new things, try new things. Teamwork has been a really important skill.” Jakob said, “It’s been fun because you get to build stuff. I’ve learnt to roll paper; most challenges have paper rolls in them. I’ve learnt to work together a bit more. I’d be keen to come again.” Caleb reflected, “I’ve learnt how to improve my designs. Of all the challenges the fishing rod challenge has been my favourite.” Jacob said, “My favourite challenge has been dropping the egg. We had to make a safe pocket for the bird’s egg and drop it onto the concrete without breaking the egg. I’d definitely like to come again. Getting to learn different skills has been great.”

**Here are some final tips from Mrs Leckie.** “You can only use what is in the specifications.” “You don’t have to use everything you are given.” “If you have a challenge that involves dropping, then use a big surface area in your design.” “If you have a bridge challenge, it’s the uprights or pillars, diagonals from triangles, arch and wires that make a bridge strong. So include those in your bridge design.” “Make it simple. If your design is elaborate then trial it to see how it works.”

“The most important thing is being positive and having fun. Winning teams give encouragement and support to each other.”

“Mistakes are learning. They are an opportunity for reflecting and adapting your plan.”