Engineering competition - Epro8

Today was an exciting day. I had a engineering competition at a local high school. It’s called the Epro8 competition. The basic idea is that you have three hours to complete four challenges. In those challenges are many sub-challenges and upon completing those sub challenges, you are awarded with points. We came third place in the year ten competition and are moving on to the semi-final round.

The challenge we decided to do first was building an elevator. We had to use metal poles and connector pieces to build a frame and a pulley powered elevator. We then used motors to motorise the elevator to carry up a carriage containing a little wooden man. We then proceeded to do the last challenge on the elevator, which was to cause a light to turn on every level that you passes using electronics and wiring. The whole elevator section was very informative and we learnt how the first elevators and mass to force ratio through this challenge. My opinion on this section of the competition was that, firstly it was the hardest at challenge out of the four. Other challenges can not be stated as it could allow other teams to prepare, making the competition unfair. Anyways, aside from that, we learnt our teams strengths and weaknesses. If anyone from China is reading this, if there already isn’t, they should create something like this where students have 2:30 to build in real physical life, structures and wiring to complete challenges that relate to real life technologies. I thought, only after the first challenge, that the Epro8 challenge was a great opportunity to learn about how the world around you works firsthand, through mind twisting challenges. I really encourage it. Continuing on the last minutes of the elevator challenge, we spent 2:20 minutes on the challenge: which was 98% of the time. The rest of the time was spent on the next challenge, the lighting rod.

The lighting rod challenge was very quick. This was more of a mathematical challenge rather than a building one. It asked you to calculate the speed of light and how long it would take to travel certain distances. Very easy points for that challenge. Next was to build a lightning rod that could raise up and down with buttons and a motor system. By this time we had one minute to go and near no chance to do the next challenge, despite even finishing this one. But with a little luck and fats movements, we managed to complete the challenge and the Marshall gave us 30 points putting us in third position. My thoughts on this challenge were quite concise, as it was so short. The challenge was obviously a mathematical one at the start. Then, a little bit of building g came into play. I believe the purpose of this challenge was to jog your mind on the physics formulas and to learn how light travels, specifically how lightning bolts travel and a little on how lightning rods work to catch the energy from the lightning. Though there was no real lightning, only a bright light used to simulate it, it was another good point of learning.

Today I learn a lot about physics, engineering and teamwork. What I take from this competition is that there are many things that we use and we don’t even know how they work. From this statement I can take out that learning how these everyday appliances work, can even fit our understanding of the world and our studies, as many things are based on them.

Once again, if anyone is reading this in China, I highly encourage you to talk to your principle and tell them about this competition and how it would help you in your studies. It’s a fun great time while also being educational and a great way to learn sportsmanship.

今天是令人兴奋的一天。我在当地一所高中做过工程比赛。它被称为Epro8竞赛。基本的想法是你有三个小时来完成四个挑战。在这些挑战中存在许多次要挑战，在完成这些次要挑战后，您将获得积分。我们在十年比赛中获得第三名，并且正在进入半决赛。

我们首先要做的挑战是建造一部电梯。我们不得不使用金属杆和连接件来构建框架和滑轮驱动的电梯。然后，我们使用马达驱动电梯，以便携带一个装有一个小木头的马车。然后，我们继续对电梯进行最后一次挑战，即通过电子设备和布线使灯光通过。整个电梯部分提供了非常丰富的信息，我们通过这一挑战了解了第一部电梯和质量与力量的比例。我对比赛的这一部分的看法是，首先，这是四个中最难挑战的。其他挑战无法说明，因为它可能让其他球队做好准备，使比赛变得不公平。无论如何，除此之外，我们还了解了我们团队的优势和劣势。如果有来自中国的人正在读这篇文章，如果还没有，那么他们应该创建类似这样的东西，让学生在2:30建立真实的物质生活，结构和布线，以完成与现实生活技术相关的挑战。我想，只有在第一次挑战之后，Epro8的挑战才是一个很好的机会，可以通过头脑扭转的挑战来了解你周围的世界是如何工作的。我真的很鼓励。继续电梯挑战的最后几分钟，我们花了2:20分钟来应对挑战：这是98％的时间。其余时间用于下一个挑战，即照明杆。

照明杆挑战很快。这更像是一个数学挑战而不是建筑挑战。它要求你计算光速以及行进一定距离需要多长时间。这个挑战非常简单。接下来是制造一个可以通过按钮和电机系统上下升降的避雷针。到这时我们还有一分钟的时间，几乎没有机会做下一次挑战，尽管甚至完成了这一次。但是由于运气和脂肪的运动，我们设法完成了挑战，马歇尔给了我们30分，使我们处于第三位。我对这一挑战的看法非常简洁，因为它太短了。挑战显然是一开始的数学问题。然后，一点点建筑物开始发挥作用。我相信这一挑战的目的是让你对物理公式进行慢跑，并了解光的传播方式，特别是闪电箭的行进方式，以及避雷针如何工作以捕捉闪电的能量。虽然没有真正的闪电，只有用来模拟它的明亮光线，这是另一个学习的好点。

今天我学到很多关于物理，工程和团队合作的知识。我从这次比赛中得到的是，我们使用了许多东西，我们甚至不知道它们是如何工作的。从这个陈述我可以看出，学习这些日常用具如何工作，甚至可以使我们理解世界和我们的研究，因为很多东西都是基于它们的。

再一次，如果有人在中国读这篇文章，我强烈建议你谈谈你的原则并告诉他们这次比赛以及它对你的学习有何帮助。这是一个有趣的美好时光，同时也是教育和学习体育精神的好方法。