This article is from page 36 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 36 JPG
TWO national school pupils from Querrin National School have brought national success to west Ort
Young engineering boffins Michael Duffy and Ronan Allen from the national school near Kilkee, were crowned winners of the Engineers Ireland STEPS to Engineering K’NEX Challenge on Thursday.
The final took place in the Helix in Dublin City University.
Michael and Ronan competed with primary school children from across
Ireland for the prestigious title of Junior Engineer of Ireland 2008.
They won the competition with their creation of a marine turbine through the use of the construction toy K’NEX.
John Power, chartered engineer and Director General of Engineers Ireland, congratulated Michael and Ronan on winning this year’s com- exe elOee
“They should be very proud. By winning today they have effectively surpassed 22,000 other primary school students from across the country who entered the competition
originally,” he said.
‘At Engineers Ireland we want to demonstrate to students and their parents that engineering is a career option that encourages inventive- ness. The K’NEX Challenge gives the children a taste of the creative thinking and problem solving that is required day to day by engineers.”
This year’s K’NEX Challenge took place in 750 primary schools and in- volved 22,000 primary school pupils from across the country.
Each team of two children com- peted against the clock using their imagination, creativity and skill to
plan, design and construct an engi- neering model.
The pupils worked under the theme, “celebrating the past, creating the fu- ture’, with the educational construc- tion toy, K’NEX.
The All-Ireland final was officiated by judges from NUI Galway, Water- ford I’T and ESBI.