10th of November 2012,
The Oil and Gas Discovery Centre held its first ‘Water Rocket Challenge' open to Year 6 students across the Belait District.
To officiate the event, Nur Karnina Karim, Exhibition and Education coordinator, introduced the Guest of Honour Stephanie S. Sekhon, Marketing and Public Relations coordinator, and gave a speech welcoming students and teachers present that morning.
The mission is to design a Water-Rocket Apparatus capable of reaching the highest altitude possible given specific launch criteria. Students are given recycled materials such as a large water bottle, pieces of cardboard and duct tape to create a home-made rocket with the end result of using pressurized water to propel the rocket in the air.
The Water Rocket Challenge serves to familiarize students with the basic principles of rocketry, design engineering, and manufacturing engineering.
To mark the opening of the event, Guest of Honour, Stephanie S. Sekhon was invited to launch the first water rocket. The students watched in awe as the water rocket soared through the air and appeared eager to launch their water rocket creation. Approximately 45 students took part in the challenge, with a total of 15 teams - three students per team.
The challenge kick started with a panel of judges selecting the best design rockets and launchers presented by 15 government and private schools which varied from the sophisticated-looking ones to the simplest of design, coming all unique in their own designs, followed by the main challenge itself.
This was also the first collaboration between the science teachers from various Belait school districts and OGDC in an effort to instil the basic fundamentals of science in a fun and friendly environment.
The event ended with the prize presentation which was divided into two categories. For the ‘Best Design' category, Sekolah Rendah PSB SOAS took the first prize home. For the ‘Water Rocket Challenge ' Chung Ching came in first place, Sekolah Rendah PSN PHMY in second, followed by Sekolah Rendah Mohamad Alam in third place. All students were also given certificates as well as souvenirs as a token of appreciation for their participation.
--Courtesy of Brudirect.com
