Marsden’s All Girl Engineering Team A Winning Combination

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School’s team of Charlotte Cinque, Lexi More, Jemima Jackson and Connie McLauchlan led the field with their EVolocity electric vehicle design. They were the only all-girls team taking part in the EVolocity Electric Vehicle Building Challenge,where students design, build and compete in electric vehicles.

Charlotte Cinque (Year 10) drove the Marsden EVolocity team’s cart to success, at the EVolocity Electric Vehicle Building Challenge regional finals late last month.

During the year the Marsden students constructed a cart from recycled materials. They had the chance to test it against other teams at the Wellington-Manawatu EVolocity Electric Vehicle Building Challenge regional finals in Palmerston North, with great results. The girls won two of the four awards: Show Stoppers Impact on the Crowd and Event - Best in Show, and the Innovation Award for Engineering Excellence. They came second in the other two awards, Earth Care Recycled or Sustainable Materials with Low Demand on Environment, and Overall Performance. An outstanding achievement for Marsden’s first time engineers, and a feat that also aligns strongly with Marsden’s strategic sustainability goal.

“The girls were amazing, self-managing most of this task throughout the year, overcoming COVID setbacks and problem solving along the way", said their teacher Ms Binns.

Over the course of the year the team worked together to construct their vehicle. Students could choose to build either an electric bike or cart. The girls met most weeks to collaborate on the design and build process. With an eye on price, sustainability and the stringent safety and build requirements, the girls designed and built their cart out of old shelving, BMX handlebars and chain, water damaged wood, recycled wheels from a bike repair shop and a repurposed school chair. The electric motor was supplied by EVolocity.

The annual EVolocity electric vehicle building challenge is a national competition for high school students, organised in partnership with Orion. Sponsors for the Wellington-Manawatu region are Mello Yello E-bikes and Victoria University of Wellington’s Paihau-Robinson Research Institute.

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School (Girls Years 1-13, co-ed Preschool) has been providing quality independent education for over 140 years. While honouring tradition it delivers a wide-ranging, modernised and future-focused curriculum. Marsden is also New Zealand’s first Visible WellbeingTM School, leading the way in wellbeing education. Marsden School’s purpose is to lay the foundation for lives of meaning, accomplishment and genuine happiness. marsden.school.nz

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