Maxwellton Primary pupils bid for national glory

Jun 3 2009 by Graham Mann, East Kilbride News

TWO inventive pupils from Maxwellton Primary School have won their way through to the final of nationwide competition.

Josh MacDonald and Jack Pate, both 10, showed great imagination to come up with a brilliant aircraft design.

They were taking part in the annual K’nex Challenge competition for young engineers at South Lanarkshire College and their winning effort has secured them a place in the Scottish final in Dundee later this month.

The challenge provides primary school children with an introduction to the exciting world of design and engineering by challenging them to build a design solution out of K’nex.

The talented duo were asked, along with all the other contestants, to make an aircraft capable of carrying a small car. Their design ticked all the boxes and they were delighted when the judges selected their aircraft ahead of all the others.

Classroom assistant Carol Graham, who will escort the boys to the Dundee event on June 17, said: “We are all so proud of them to get this far.

“They planned and designed the aircraft from start to finish and I think they are in with a real chance of winning in Dundee. But no matter what happens they have done extremely well to get this far.”

The challenge encourages the pupils, who work in pairs, to develop and demonstrate their problem solving skills, their imagination, creativity and ingenuity as well as early project management skills.

They start the challenge by drawing their ideas first and then building their solution, adapting their initial designs as they learn what works and what doesn’t.

The Junior Engineer for Britain K'Nex Challenge has a long and established history with over 50,000 pupils taking part in 2008. A UK national final will be held in 2009 and it is expected that 30 teams will be invited to attend.

Here’s hoping Josh and Jake are among them.