The Challenge commences

More than 500 students will compete at the state finals of the Science and Engineering Challenge, at the University of Southern Queensland's (USQ) Toowoomba Campus this week (Thursday 10 and Friday 11 August 2006).

During the Super Challenge Year 9 and 10 students from across the state will compete to secure a place at the National Challenge, that will be held in Tamworth during October.

The hot contenders for this year's event are St Mary's College Maryborough, who scored the highest mark in the regional Challenges. Christian Outreach College Toowoomba and Riverview State High School are also tipped to perform well.

USQ Events Manager, Ken Gideon, said all schools although some teams performed well regionally, all schools competing had a great chance of winning.

"The schools have all done very well to get this far and although some scored higher than others at the regional Challenges, sometimes there has only been one or two points separating teams," Mr Gideon said.

"From what I hear many of the schools have been training too, so it will be interesting to see how they go.

"Each school team is divided into smaller groups of four or five students, with each group completing one or two activities.

"The activities are based on Science and Engineering concepts and require students to think for themselves instead of being guided to a predetermined answer."

On Thursday, the eight schools which placed second at the regional Challenges will compete for the Plate and on Friday the eight winning schools from the regional Challenges will compete for the Cup.

Both the Plate and the Cup winners from each day will make it through to the Nationals.

Schools competing for the Plate include Sheldon College, St Peter Claver College, Merrimac State High School, Cavendish Road State High School, Beenleigh State High School, St Saviour's College, Clairvaux McKillop College and West Moreton Anglican College.

Schools competing for the Cup include St Mary's College (Hervey Bay), St Mary's College (Toowoomba), Brigidine College, Christian Outreach College (Toowoomba), Emmanuel College, Rivermount State High School, Brisbane State High School and Northside Christian College.

The Science and Engineering Super Challenge is sponsored by USQ's Faculties of Science and Engineering and the Rotary Club of Toowoomba East.

Media Contact: Fiona Taylor, USQ Media, +61 7 3470 4117 or +61 423 808 462
Alternative contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628